# 

(2 

.jgr 

tc 

r? 

IE 
3 

^ 

CD 

J5 

,i»^ 

Ic 

1 

f^ 

Ha 

Q. 

x^ 

*S) 

|zi 

"^ 

^O 

^ 

5 

^ 

0) 

o 

c 

K^ 

o 

bi) 

CV 

*si 

EH 

<: 

^ 

t^ 

g 

=3 

^ 

Iz; 

E 

J 

•o 

M 

f'j 

•S 

^j 

rt 

CO 

1^ 

fM 

l! 

2 

^ 

«sk 

Oi 

^ 

^ 

% 

■o 

s 

^ 

<u 
to 

1 

^ 

QI 

!> 

UNITED  TESTIMONY 


l^iuo  jhundrd  |dobaptis5t  SfJ^olars 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM. 


Rev.  N.  L.  RIGBY. 


"  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." — Jes08. 
John  vi.  12. 

"  Out  of  thine  own  mouth  will  I  judge  thee."— Luke  xix.  22. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

Grant,  Faires  &  Rodgers,  Printers,  52  &  54  N.  Sixth  St. 

1875. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress^  in  the  year  1875,  by 

REV.  N.  L.  RIGBY, 
In  the  Office  [of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


PREFACE 


The  folloTving  pages  are  to  shed  light  on  the"  subject  of 
Christian  Baptism — not  indeed  by  the  presentation  of  orig- 
inal thought  on  the  part  of  the  author,  but  simply  by  put- 
ting the  thoughts  of  others  in  readable  form.  In  other 
words  the  light  is  borrowed  from  many  stars  in  the  literary 
firmament.  It  is,  however,  just  as  real,  "  For  whatsoever 
doth  make  manifest  is  light ;"  while  the  method  of 
uniting  these  scattered  rays  may  make  it  even  more  effec- 
tive. For  as  it  illumines  the  path  of  inquiry,  it  will  dazzle 
and  blind  the  eyes  of  criticism.  Nor  can  it  be  said,  the 
light  is  colored  by  the  medium  through  which  it  passes, 
for  the  writer  has  chosen  not  to  express  any  thought  in  his 
own  words.  He  has  also  scrupulously  avoided  any  selec- 
tions from  Baptist  authors — not  because  Baptist  scholarship 
carries  less  authority,  but  because  the  testimony  of  oppo- 
nents rather  than  that  of  friends  is  less  likely  to  be  dispu- 
ted. "  Since  all  will  allow  that  the  testimony  of  an  adver- 
sary is  good  against  himself."'^    And  need  I  say  that  the 

*  Dr.  Owen's  Def.  of  Scrip.  Ords.,  p.  158. 


IV  PREFACE. 

number  of  these  witnesses  must  have  weight  with  the  un- 
prejudiced reader?  For  if  ten  concessions  add  force  to  ar- 
gument, one  hundred  do  much  the  more.  "As  when  a 
hundred  facts  exhibit  one  and  the  same  phenomenon,  the 
expression  of  this  phenomenon,  in  its  generality,  is  the  ex- 
pression of  a  principle  in  philosophy ;  or,  as  when  a  hun- 
dred verses  speak  one  and  the  same  truth,  this  truth,  sus- 
tained on  the  basis  of  a  multiple  testimony,  may  by  means 
of  one  brief  and  comprehensive  affirmation  become  the 
article  of  a  creed."*  It  may  also  give  additional  weight  to 
know  that  the  number  embraced  in  this  plan  of  uniting  the 
testimony,  without  notes  or  comments,  is  not  over  one  to  fifty 
of  the  passages  rejected  for  want  of  fitness. 

Nor  does  it  militate  against  the  argument  that  these  au- 
thors failed  to  practice  what  they  taught.  For  if  we  turn 
to  the  last  chapter  we  shall  readily  discover  that  the  reasons 
given  are  unscriptural.  The  plea  based  on  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority is  Roman  Catholicism.  That  based  on  a  theory  of 
liberty,  latitude,  expedience,  <£*c.,  is  even  worse.  "  Since  want 
of  faithfulness  to  one  truth,  professed  in  theory,  involves 
treachery  to  all  the  rest."f  For  if  a  man  may  renounce 
one  truth  in  revelation,  and  yet  be  sinless,  he  may  renounce 
two ;  if  two,  four ;  if  four,  eight ;  if  eight,  half  the  Bible ; 
if  half,  the  whole;  and  yet  be  innocent."!  The  plea  based 
on  the  common  truism,  "  Baptism  non-essential  to  salva- 

*  Dr.  Chalmers,  Inst.,  Vol.  i.,  p.  291. 
t  Dr.  J.  Waddington,  Emmaus,  p.  261. 
X  J.  A.  James,  Ch.  in  Earn.,  p.  12. 


PREFACE. 


tion  "  amounts  to  saying,  "  If  it  were  essential  to  my  salva- 
tion, I  love  myself  well  enough  to  take  up  the  cross ;  but 
since  it  is  not  essential  to  salvation,  I  do  not  love  the  Sa- 
viour well  enough  to  obey  His  command,  and  follow  His 
example." 

But  enough — and  now  with  the  prayer  that  this  little 
volume  of  united  testimony  may  shea  its  light  wherever  it 
goes,  and  dissipate  the  darkness  of  ignorance,  prejudice  or 
doubt  from  many  a  mind,  I  commit  it  to  the  public. 

N.  L.  KIGBY. 


Winfield,  Kansas,  Aug.  1,  1875. 


^'     "^     ^''       n 


-J',    "■ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I.                          PAGE 
Christian  Baptism  as  introduced  by  John, 9 

CHAPTER  II. 
Christian  Baptism  as  adopted  by  Jesus, 13 

CHAPTER  III. 
Christian  Baptism  as  commanded  in  Scripture, 17 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Christian  Baptism  as  obeyed  by  the  Disciples, 23 

CHAPTER  V. 

Christian  Baptism  as  typified  at  Pentecost, 27 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Christian  Baptism  as  a  figure  of  Christ's  sufierings, 29 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Christian  Baptism  as  a  figure  of  death  and  resurrection,     32 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Christian  Baptism  as  a  symbol  of  regeneration, 35 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Christian  Baptism  as  prefigured  at  the  Red  Sea, 39 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK  X.                          PAGE 
Christian  Baptism  as  prefigured  by  the  Ark, 44 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Christian  Baptism  as  illustrated  by  divers  baptisms,...     46 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Christian  Baptism  as  the  door  to  the  local  Church, 50 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Christian  Baptism  as  related  to  the  Lord's  Supper, 54 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Christian  Baptism  as  to  its  nature  from  baptizo, 59 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Christian  Baptism  as  corroborated  in  history, 65 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Christian   Baptism  as  perverted  into  a  saving  ordi- 
nance,      72 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Christian  Baptism  as  unscripturally  applied  to  infants,     77 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Christian  Baptism   as    substituted    by  pouring    and 

sprinkling, 88 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Christian  Baptism  as  preserved  by  the  Baptists, 96 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Christian  Baptism  as  falsely  viewed — a  plea  for  incon- 
sistency,    103 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM. 


AS   INTRODUCED     BY   JOHN. 

Its  beginning,  Matt.  iii.  1 — Its]  condition,  Matt.  iii.  2,  8,  11, 
repentance— Its  design,  Matt.  iii.  11  ;  Mark  i.  4,  5,  unto 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins,  i.  e.  because  of  them — Its 
authority,  Matt.  i.  25— Its  mode,  Mark  i.  10,  Baptisma, 
immersion — Corroborated. 

T  is  an  old  controversy  whether  the 
Baptism  of  John  was  a  new  institu- 
tion, or  an  imitation  of  the  baptism 
of  proselytes  as  practiced  by  the  Jews. 
But  at  all  events  there  is  no  record  of  such  a 
rite,  conducted  in  the  name  of,  and  with  re- 
ference to  a  particular  person  before  the  ministry 
of  John.*  In  former  times  proselytes  coming 
over  from  heathenism  to  the  Jewish  religion, 
used  to  wash  themselves,  which  is  a  very  difterent 
thing  from  baptism,  or  persons  being  washed  by 

*  Dr.  Smith.  Bib.  Die.  Art.  Jesus  Christ. 


1 

1 

10  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

one  another.*  Consequently  it  is  more  likely 
that  the  Jews  took  the  hint  of  proselyte  baptism 
from  the  Christians  after  our  Saviour's  time  than 
that  He  borrowed  His  baptism  from  theirs.f 
We  find  no  account  of  baptism  as  a  distinct  re- 
ligious rite  before  the  mission  of  John.J  The 
original  institution  of  admitting  Jews  to  the 
Covenant  and  strangers  to  the  same,  prescribed 
no  other  rite  than  circumcision.  No  account  of 
any  other  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  none 
in  the  Apocrypha,  New  Testament,  Targums  of 
Onkelos,  of  Jonathan,  of  Joseph  the  Blind,  or 
in  the  works  of  any  other  Targumist,  excepting 
Pseudo-Jonathan,  whose  work  belongs  to  the 
seventh  or  eighth  century.  No  evidence  is 
found  in  Philo,  Josephus,  or  any  of  the  earlier 
Christian  writers.  But  how  could  an  allusion 
to  such  a  rite  have  escaped  them  all  if  it  were 
as  common,  and  as  much  required  by  usage  as 
circumcision  ?  In  fine  we  are  destitute  of  any 
early  testimony  to  the  practice  of  proselyte 
baptism  antecedently  to  the  Christian  era.  And 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  we  can  avoid  the  con- 
clusion that  such  a  custom  was  older  than  the 
third  century. 

*  G.  Benson,  D.D.        f  Home's  Introd.  Art.  Proselytes. 
X  Richard  Watson,  Bib.  Die.  Art.  Bap. 


AS   INTEODUCED    BY   JOHN.  11 

The  baptism  of  John  and  of  Jesus,  then,  I  must 
regard  as  being  a  special  appointment  of  heaven* 
— as  a  neAv  law  of  the  gospel  church. f  The  law 
and  the  prophets  were  tintil  John  :  since  that 
time  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  preached,  and  every 
man  presseth  into  it.];  The  baptism  of  John, 
whence  was  it  ?  from  heaven,  or  of  men  ?  I 
answer,  it  is  described  equally  with  the  baptism 
of  Christ,  as  a  divine  institution,  and  as  per- 
formed under  divine  authority.!  And  it  is  very 
certain  that  the  ministry  of  John  was  precisely 
the  same  as  that  which  was  afterwards  commit- 
ted to  the  apostles.  For  their  baptism  was  not 
different,  though  it  was  administered  by  dif- 
ferent hands ;  but  the  sameness  of  their  doctrine 
shows  their  baptism  to  have  been  the  same — 
both  baptized  unto  repentance,  both  unto  remis- 
sion of  sins ;  both  baptized  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  from  whom  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins  proceed.  And  if  any  difference  be  sought 
for  in  the  word  of  God,  the  only  difference  that 
will  be  found  is,  that  John  baptized  in  the  name 
of  Him  who  was  to  come,  the  apostles  in  the 

*  Prof.  Moses  Stuart  on  Bap.,  p.  140,  Nashville  Ed. 

t  Poole  on  Matt.  iii.  15. 

X  Luke  xvi.    16. 

§  Kuapp's  Theo.  p.  484. 


12  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM. 

name  of  Him  who  had  already  manifested  Him- 
self.* 

Now,  that  the  baptism  of  John  was  by  plung- 
ing the  body,  seems  to  appear  from  those  things 
which  are  related  of  him ;  namely,  that  he  bap- 
tized in  Jordan,  that  he  baptized  in  Enon,  he- 
cause  there  was  much  water  there,  and  that  Christ 
being  baptized,  came  up  out  of  the  water ;  to 
which  that  seems  to  be  parallel.  Acts  viii.  38, 
Philij)  and  the  Eunuch  loent  down  into  the  icater, 
<j^c.t  For  what  need  would  there  have  been 
either  for  the  Baptises  resorting  to  great  con- 
fluxes of  water,  or  of  Philip  and  the  Eunuch^s 
going  down  into  this  stream,  were  it  not  that  the 
baptism  both  of  one  and  the  other  was  to  be  per- 
formed by  an  immersion,  a  very  little  water, 
as  it  doth  with  us,  sufficing  for  an  affiision,  or 
sprinkling.J 

*  John  Calvin,  Hinton's  Hist.,  p.  Q%. 

f  Dr.  Lightfoot  in  A.  Clark's  Com.  on  Mark. 

X  Dr.  Towerson,  Sac.  Bap.  part  iii.  pp.  53-60. 


i 

ml 

II. 


AS   ADOPTED    BY   JESUS. 

For  what  purpose,  Matt.  iii.  15 — Thus  recognizing  John's 
Baptism — Setting  us  a  Divine  pattern— Declaring  the  end 
of  His  mission — The  Divine  approval.  Matt.  iii.  16,17 — 
A  lesson  of  loyalty. 

HE  Forerunner  descends  with  his 
Redeemer  into  the  rapid  waters  of  the 
now  sacred  river* — and  Jesus  was 
baptized  of  John  in  Jordan. f  The 
pure  waters  laved  His  sinless  body,  and  the 
Saviour,  straightway  coming  up  out  of  the 
stream  stands  on  the  bank  in  prayer. J  Heaven 
once  again  opened  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus — 
primarily  for  Him,  and,  through  Him,  for  all 
mankind.  He  was  hereby  brought  into  per- 
sonal relation  with  that  kingdom  of  God,  the 
future  subjects  of  which  were  to  be  set  apart  in 
like  manner,  and  entered  into  communication 
with  an  impure  world,  whose  sins  He  was  to 
bear.     Thus  the  baptism  of  John  was  not  only 

*  Bishop  Elliot,  Hist.  Lee,  p.  108. 

t  Scripture. 

X  J.  D.  Burns,  Fam.  Treas.,  p.  2i2,  for  1861. 

13 


14  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

applicable  to  Jesus,  but  attained  its  real  mean- 
ing and  object  only  by  the  baptism  of  Jesus. 
Thus  it  became  the  symbol  of  His  consecration 
unto  death,  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

If  we  inquire  into  the  Lord's  own  view  of  the 
necessity  of  baptism,  in  His  own  case,  He 
calls  it  a  *  fulfilling  of  all  righteousness* — all 
parts  of  righteousness;  and  therefore  this,  also, 
the  earnest  of  the  other  greater  parts.  By  a 
narrow  view  of  righteousness,  it  would  seem 
that  John  should  be  baptized  by  Jesus.  By  a 
comprehensive  view  o^all  righteousness,  the  mat- 
ter was  inverted. t  And  every  answer  to  the 
inquiry,  why  Jesus  suffered  Himself  to  be  bap- 
tized, may  be  considered  unsatisfactory,  which 
either  regards  baptism  as  necessary  for  the  Lord, 
in  the  same  sense  as  it  was  for  the  sinful  Israel- 
ites ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  sees  in  this  fact  only 
a  compliance  with  an  existing  usage  of  no  special 
importance  to  Himself  J  Our  Lord,  I  think, 
would  be  baptized,  that  He  might  conciliate 
authority  to  the  baptism  of  John,  that  by  His 
own  excmiple  He  might  commend  and  sanctify 
our  baptism,  that  men  might  not  be  loth  to  come 

*  Lange,  Matt.  iii.  13-17,  and  Luke  iii.  1-22. 
t  Bengel's  Gnomon,  ^Matt.  iii.  15. 
t  Lange,  Luke  iii.  1-22. 


AS   ADOPTED   BY   JESUS.  15 

to  the  baptism  of  the  Lord,  seeing  the  Lord  was 
not  backward  to  come  to  the  baptism  of  a  ser- 
vant, that  by  His  baptism  He  might  represent 
the  future  condition  of  both  Himself  and  His 
followers :  first  humble,  then  glorious ;  now 
mean  and  low,  then  glorious  and  exalted ;  that 
represented  by  immersion,  this  by  emersion — 
and  finally,  to  declare  by  His  voluntary  sub- 
mission to  baptism,  that  He  would  not  delay 
the  delivering  up  of  Himself  to  be  immersed  in 
the  torrents  of  hell,  yet  with  a  certain  faith  and 
hope  of  emerging.*  Thus  he  chose  to  give  the 
sanction  of  His  example  to  the  baptism  of  John, 
as  to  a  divine  ordinancef — permitted  the  con- 
tinuance of  John's  baptism  as  harmonizing  with 
His  own  designs.  The  import  of  the  rite  being 
the  same,  whether  administered  by  John  him- 
self, or  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  J 

This  ceremony,  then,  Christ  adopted — for  no 
ceremony  could  be  better  adapted  to  Christ's 
purpose  than  this — and  He  made  it  absolutely 
binding  upon  all  His  followers  to  submit  to  it.§ 
While  an  ordinance  of  which  the  Lord  Jesus 

*  Witsius,  from  Pengilly,  p.  17. 
t  Albert  Barnes,  D.D.,  Matt.  iii.  15. 
X  Coleman,  Christ.  Antiq. 
§  Ecce  Homo,  p.  96. 


16  CHKISTIAN   BAPTISM. 

Christ  Himself  partook  is  not  to  be  slightly 
esteemed  ;  an  ordinance  to  which  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church  submitted  ought  to  be  ever 
honorable  in  the  eyes  of  professing  Christians.* 
If  it  became  Christ,  as  our  surety  and  our  ex- 
ample, perfectly  to  fulfil  all  righteousness,  it 
becomes  us  to  walk  in  all  the  commandments 
and  ordinances  of  God,  without  exception,  and 
to  attend  on  every  divine  institution,  according 
to  the  meaning  and  intent  of  it,  as  long  as  it 
continues  in  force.  Thus  far  Christ's  example 
is  obligatory. t  Then  let  our  Lord's  submitting 
to  baptism  teach  us  a  holy  exactness  in  the  ob- 
servance of  those  institutions  which  owe  their 
obligation  merely  to  a  divine  command.  Surely 
thus  it  becometh  all  His  followers  to  fulfil  all 
righteousness.^  Hence  the  pattern  of  Christ 
and  the  Apostles  is  more  to  me  than  all  the 
human  wisdom  in  the  world. § 

*  Rev.  J.  C.  Ryle  on  Matt.  iii.  14-17. 

t  Scott,  Com.  on  Matt.  iii.  15. 

X  John  Wesley  on  Matt.  iii.  16.  ^  Polhill. 


III. 


AS  COMMANDED  IN  SCRIPTURE. 

In  Matt,  xxviii.  18, 19 ;  Mark  xvi.  15, 16 ;  Acts  x.  48.— Com- 
manded, of  course,  to  be  obeyed — Loyalty  to  King  Jesus 
requires  this — obeyed  too  as  commanded — The  Command 
rests  on  all  power — Obedience  alone  can  claim  the  promise  : 
Lo,  I  am  with  you,  &c. 

HE  command  to  baptize  is  co-exten- 
sive with  the  command  to  preach  the 
Gospel.*  And  the  law  of  Christ  re- 
quires that  all  Avho  believe  the  Gospel 
should  be  baptized. f  Then  whoever  know- 
ingly and  wilfully  rejects  baptism,  treats  with 
indifference  a  precept  of  the  most  exalted  Mes- 
senger of  God,  yea  of  the  Lord  Himself,  and  is 
guilty  of  a  much  greater  crime  than  those  who 
rejected  the  baptism  of  John.^  For  if  it  be 
once  shown  to  possess  the  authority  of  the  Su- 
preme Lawgiver,  it  will  not  be  disputed  that 
our  first  and  immediate  duty  is  compliance. 
What  He  appoints  it  is  ours  to  observe.     Is  it, 

*Dr.  Smith,  Bib.  Die. 

t  Dr.  Doddridge,  Mis.  Works,  p.  490. 

X  Quoted  by  Wallace  on  Bap.  p.  B5. 

2  17 


18  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

or  is  it  not  a  Divine  institution  ?  *  If  it  be 
commanded,  it  matters  nothing,  whether  the  ob- 
ligation be  moral  or  natural,  positive  or  in- 
stituted. He  who  places  before  him  the  will  of 
God  as  the  rule  of  his  life,  will  not  refine  or 
even  dwell  much  upon  this  distinction.  The 
ordinances  of  Christianity,  it  is  true,  are  all  of 
them  significant.  Their  meaning,  and  even  their 
use,  is  not  obscure.  But  were  it  otherwise — was 
the  design  of  any  positive  institution  inexplica- 
ble; did  it  appear  to  have  been  proposed  only 
as  an  exercise  of  obedience, — it  is  not  for  us  to 
hesitate  in  our  compliance,  f  With  the  dis- 
covery of  the  mind  of  God,  inquiry  ends  and 
obedience  commences.  I  can  conceive  of  noth- 
ing more  preposterous,  than  for  the  professed 
servants  of  Christ  to  be  squandering  their  powers 
of  invention  in  devising  and  vindicating  plans 
of  their  own.  J  Let  a  precept  be  never  so  dif- 
ficult to  obey,  or  never  so  distasteful  to  flesh  and 
blood,  yet  if  I  see  it  is  God's  command,  my  soul 
says.  It  is  good  ;  let  me  obey  it  till  I  die.  § 

It  will  be  readily  allowed,  also,  that  for  any 

*Dr.  Wardlaw,  Inf.  Bap.  p.  131. 

fDr.  Paley,  Prim.  Church  Mag.  1854,  p.  311. 

X  Dr.  Wardlaw  ou  Nat.  Est.  p.  56,  GO. 

^  Dr.  Cotton  Mather.    Life  by  Dr.  Jenning,  p.  118. 


AS   COMMANDED   IN   SCRIPTURE.  19 

one  to  abstain  from  baptism,  when  he  knows  it 
is  an  institution  of  Christ,  and  that  it  is  the  will 
of  Christ  that  he  should  subject  himself  to  it,  is 
such  an  act  of  disobedience  to  His  authority,  as 
is  inconsistent  with  true  faith.  *  He  did  not 
say,  indeed,  that  a  man  could  not  be  saved 
without  baptism,  but  He  has  strongly  implied 
that  where  this  is  neglected,  knowing  it  to  be  a 
command  of  the  Saviour,  it  endangers  the  salva- 
tion of  the  soul,  t  At  all  events,  if  Christ  Him- 
self who  giveth  salvation  do  require  baptism,  it 
is  not  for  us  to  sound  and  examine  Him, 
whether  unbaptized  persons  may  be  saved,  but 
seriously  to  do  what  is  required.  % 

In  this  day,  however,  there  are  very  few  in 
the  world  who  judge  a  diligent  observation  of 
Divine  institutions  to  be  a  thing  of  any  great 
importance.  By  some  they  are  neglected;  by 
some  corrupted  with  additions  of  their  own ; 
and  by  some  they  are  exalted  above  their  proper 
place  and  use,  and  turned  into  an  occasion  of 
neglecting  more  important  duties.  §  But  these 
things  ought  not  so  to  be.     For  God  had  the 

*  Doddridge,  Mis.  Works,  p.  490. 

t  Barnes,  Mark  xvi.  16. 

i  Hooker  in  Wall's  His.  Inf.  Bap.  Vol.  iv.  p.  251. 

§  Dr.  Owen  on  Heb.  i.  6. 


20  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

wisest  reasons  why  He  would  have  an  appoint- 
ment administered  in  this  or  the  other  manner. 
It  is  not  lawful  therefore,  for  men  to  alter  any- 
thing, or  to  mutilate  the  appointment.  Thus 
the  sacraments  are  to  be  used,  not  according  to 
our  own  pleasure,  but  in  the  manner  appointed 
by  God.*  For  nothing  is  a  privilege  in  the 
religious  sense,  but  what  God  has  made  such, 
and  He  has  made  nothing  such,  except  in  His 
own  way  and  on  His  own  terms.  Baptism  is  a 
privilege  when  administered  and  received  in  the 
manner  appointed  by  Him,  hut  in  no  other. 
When  this  ordinance  is  received  in  any  other 
manner,  it  is  plainly  no  obedience  to  any  com- 
mand of  His,  and  therefore  has  no  promise — 
and  let  me  add,  no  encouragement  to  hope  for  a 
blessing. t  It  is  then  most  dangerous  and  pre- 
sumptuous to  add  any  ceremony,  or  to  join  any 
service,  on  any  pretence,  unto  Heaven's  appoint- 
ment.J  And  how  can  the  despisers  of  baptism 
expect  the  approbation  of  the  Lord,  when  He 
Himself,  although  He  did  not  need  baptism,  so 
highly  honored  the  invitation  of  John  as  to  be 

*  Buddeus,  Inst.  Theol.  Mor.  Part  I.  cv.  §  18,  Part  II.  cii. 
§50. 
t  Dwight's  Sermons,  Vol.  IV.  p.  343. 
i  Archibald  Hall,  Gosp.  Worship,  Vol.  I.  p.  326. 


AS   COMMANDED   IN     SCRIPTURE.  21 

baptized  by  him,  amid  the  most  evident  tokens 
of  the  Divine  favor.*  It  is  worthy  of  remark 
that  Jesus  has  made  baptism  of  so  much  im- 
portance, f  And  who  is  the  daring,  insolent 
worm  that  will  presume  to  dispute  the  authority, 
or  change  the  ordinance  of  Him  who  is  given  to 
be  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church  ?  J 

Now  what  the  command  of  Christ  was  in 
this  particular,  cannot  well  be  doubted  of  by 
those  who  shall  consider  the  words  of  Christ  (in 
the  Commission)  concerning  it,  and  the  practice 
of  those  times,  whether  in  the  practice  of  John, 
or  of  our  Saviour.  Now  the  words  of  Christ 
are,  that  they  should  baptize,  or  dip,  those  whom 
they  made  disciples  to  Him — for  so,  no  doubt, 
the  word  baptism  properly  signifies, — and  such 
as  was  the  practice  of  those  times  in  baptizing, 
such  in  reason  are  we  to  think  our  Saviour  s 
command  to  have  been  concerning  it.§  Ac- 
cording then  to  the  principle  that  nothing  can 
be  lawfully  performed,  much  less  required,  in 
the  affairs  of  religion,  which  is  not  either  com- 
manded by  God  in  the  Scripture,  or  at  least,  re- 

*  Quoted  by  Wallace,  p.  85. 

t  Barnes,  Mark  xvi.  16. 

J  Archb.  Hall,  Gosp.  Worsp.  Vol.  I.  p.  325. 

g  Dr.  Towerson,  Sac.  Bap.   Part  III.  pp.  53-56. 


22  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM. 

commended  by  a  laudable  example,  the  baptism 
of  infants,  and  the  sprinkling  of  water  in  bap- 
tism, must  be  exterminated  from  the  Church.  * 

*  Bishop  Sanderson,  De  Obliga  Cons.  Prelec,  IV.  §  17,  18. 


ly. 


AS   OBEYED   BY  THE    DISCIPLES. 

In  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  Christ — According  to  His  example 
and  command — By  multitude  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  (Acts 
ii.  41) ;  by  the  Ethiopian  Euuch,  (Acts  viii.  36,  38) ;  by 
Paul,  (Acts  ix.  18) ;  by  Cornelius  and  others,  (Acts  x.  47, 
48) ;  by  Lydia  and  household,  (Acts  xvi.  14,  15) ;  by  Phi- 
lippian  jailor  and  household,  (Acts  vi.  33,  34) ;  by  Cris- 
pus,  Gains  and  household  of  Stephanus,  (1  Cor.  xiv.  14-16). 

"^SSUMIN'G  the  truth  of  our  conclusion 
in  the  last  chapter  that  baptism  is  an 
ordinance  of  perpetual  obligation  in  the 
Christian  Church,  it  does  seem  extra- 
ordinary that  Christians,  in  the  honest  and  dili- 
gent study  of  the  New  Testament,  should  be 
unable  to  discover  who  are  to  be  baptized,  or  in 
what  manner  the  rite  is  to  be  performed.  For 
upon  baptism  we  have  more  full  and  precise 
information  than  we  have  upon  any  other  ritual 
observance.*  As  administered  by  the  Apostles, 
baptism  had  a  clear  and  well  understood  signifi- 
cance, and  their  authority  determined  at  once 

*  Dr.  Halley,  Cong.  Lee,  p.  92. 

23 


24  CHKISTIAN     BAPTISM 

how  and  to  whom  it  was  to  be  administered.* 
Hence  the  Church  adhered  rigidly  to  the  prin- 
ciple, as  constituting  the  true  purport  of  the 
baptism  ordained  by  Christ — that  no  one  can 
be  a  member  of  the  communion  of  saints,  but 
by  his  own  solemn  vow  made  in  the  presence  of 
the  Church. t  And  when  the  Lord  commanded 
that  disciples  should  be  baptized,  the  Apostles, 
through  those  things  which  had  gone  before, 
could  have  understood  nothing  else  than  that 
men  should  be  immersed  in  water ;  nor  did  they 
in  truth,  understand  anything  else  but  immer- 
sion, as  is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  the  sa- 
cred writings.J  This  is  shown  by  the  very 
meaning  of  the  Greek  words  baptizo,  baptismal 
baptismos  used  to  designate  the  rite.  Then 
again,  by  the  analogy  of  the  baptism  of  John, 
wdiich  was  performed  in  the  Jordan.  Further- 
more by  the  New  Testament  comparisons  of 
baptism  with  the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea, 
(1  Cor.  X.  2),  Avith  the  flood,  (1  Peter  iii.  21), 
with  a  bath,  (Eph.  v.  26 ;  Titus  iii.  5),  Avith  a 
burial  and  resurrection,  (Rom.  vi.  4;  Col.  ii. 
12).     Finally,  by  the  general  usage  of  ecclesias- 

*  Kitto,  Vol.  I.,  p.  294. 

t  Dr.  Bunsen  on  Hippolytus  and  his  Age. 

t  Dr.  Theophilus  C.  Storr. 


AS   OBEYED    BY   THE   DISCIPLES.  25 

tical  antiquity,  which  was  always  immersion,  as 
it  is  to  this  day  in  the  Oriental  and  also  the 
Grseco-Russian  Churches.* 

It  appears  not  that  the  three  thousand  men- 
tioned in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  who  were 
converted  at  the  first  sermons  of  Peter,  were 
baptized  any  other  way ;  and  the  great  number 
of  those  converts  is  no  proof  that  they  were  bap- 
tized by  sprinkling,  as  some  have  conjectured. 
For  besides  that  nothing  obliges  us  to  say  that 
they  were  all  baptized  on  the  same  day.f 
Though,  if  distributed  among  the  twelve  Apos- 
tles and  those  of  the  one  hundred  and  ticenty 
disciples,  who  were  competent  to  the  work,  it  is 
not  itself  absolutely  inconceivable.  J  As  to  con- 
venience— I  must  candidly,  as  I  do  cheerfully 
acknowledge,  that  there  must  have  been  abun- 
dance of  water  in  Jerusalem  to  have  washed 
away  the  blood  of  250,000  lambs  slain  at  one 
Passover.  And  how  to  reconcile  the  sufficiency 
of  water  for  such  a  sacrifice  with  the  accounts 
of  its  scarcity,  may  not  be  easy ;  but  that  suffi- 
cient water  must  have  been  in  Jerusalem,  I  am 
bound  to  acknowledge.  §     And  I  do  wonder  at 

*  Dr.  P.  Schaff,  Ch.  Hy.,  p.  568. 

t  Bishop  Bossuet,  from  Stennet's  Ans.  to  Russen,  p.  175. 

X  Stacey.  ^  Dr.  Halley,  pp.  216,  218. 


26  CHRISTIAN     BAPTISM. 

the  disingenuous  artifice  of  learned  men,  who, 
knowing  well  the  nature  of  the  country,  have 
not  scrupled  to  make  the  most  of  this  worthless 
argument  ?*  A  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  foun- 
tains, and  depths  that  spring  out  of  the  valleys 
and  hills.     Deut.  viii.  7. 

*  The  same,  p.  312,  313. 


AS   TYPIFIED    AT   PENTECOST. 

Peophesied  in  Matt.  iii.  11 ;  Mark  i.  8;  Luke  iii.  16  ;  John 
i.  33.— Fulfilled  at  Pentecost,  Acts  ii.  1-4.  Again,  in 
Samaria,  'as  at  first,'  Acts  x.  44-46  ;  xi.  15-17. — '*  No  other 
instances. — A  baptism  because  an  overwhelming. — Fill- 
ing all  the  house.' 

HE  Spirit,  under  the  Gospel,  is  com- 
pared to  water ;  and  that  not  to  a 
little  measure  to  sprinkle  or  bedew, 
but  to  baptize  the  faithful  in.*  For 
the  Lord  saith,  Ye  shall  be  immersed  in  the 
Holy  Spirit  not  many  days  after  this,  not  in  part 
the  grace,  but  in  all-sufficing  power.  For  as  he 
who  sinks  down  in  the  waters  and  is  immersed, 
is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  the  waters,  so  also 
they  were  completely  immersed  in  the  Holy 
Spirit. t  Baptism  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  then,  is 
immersion  into  the  pure  waters  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  or  a  rich  and  abundant  communication 
of  His  gifts.      For   he  upon  whom  the   Holy 


*  Bishop  Reynolds'  Works,  p.  226. 
t  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Ins.  8. 


27 


28  '         CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM. 

Spirit  is  poured  out  is,  as  it  were,  immersed  in- 
to Him.* 

The  basis  of  this  usage  is  very  plainly  to  be 
found  in  the  designation,  by  baptizo,  of  the  idea 
of  overwhelming,  i.  e.  of  surrounding  on  all  sides 
with  fluid. t  Those  that  are  baptized  Avith  the 
Spirit,  are  as  it  were,  plunged  into  that  heavenly 
flame  whose  searching  energy  devours  all  their 
dross,  tin,  and  base  alloy.J  And  in  this  sense 
the  apostles  are  truly  said  to  be  baptized ;  for 
the  house  in  which ^his  was  done,  was  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  so  that  the  apostles  seemed  to 
be  plunged  into  it  as  into  a  fish-pool.§  Thus, 
the  words  of  our  Saviour  were  made  good.  Ye 
shall  be  baptized  (plunged  or  covered)  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  John  baptized  with  water.  || 
John  only  dipped  men  in  water,  but  ye  shall  be 
imbued  with  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit. T  He 
will  deluge  you  ungrudgingly,  Avith  the  graces 
of  the  Spirit.** 

*  Gurtlerus,  Inst.  Theol.  c.  33,  §  108. 

t  Prof.  Moses  Stuart  on  Bap.,  p.  74. 

J  Bishop  Hopkins'  Works,  p.  519. 

§  Casaubon. 

li  H.  Dodwell,  Gen.  Del.  of  Christians,  part  2,  ch.  4,  §  7. 

%  Dr.  Bloomfield. 

**  Theophylact. 


YI. 

AS  A  FIGUEE  OF  CHRIST's  SUFFERINGS. 

Recorded  in  Matt.  xx.  22,  23,  Luke  xii.  50.— Paraphrased  by 
Doddridge — More  than  a  Sprinkling — Illustrated  in  Psalms 
xlii.  6,  7;  Ixxxviii.  7  :  16,  17. — Also  in  Classical  writers — 
Represents  the  Divine  wrath  against  sin— Set  forth  in  His 
own  baptism. 


with  which  I  am  shortly  to  be  baptized,  and  as 
it  were,  overwhelmed  for  a  time?  I  have 
indeed  a  most  dreadful  baptism  to  be  baptized 
with,  and  I  know  that  I  shall  shortly  be  bathed, 
as  it  were,  in  blood,  and  plunged  in  the  most 
overichelming  distress.* 

Here,  I  must  acknowledge,  our  Baptist 
brethren  have  the  advantage;  for  our  Re- 
deemer's suiferings  must  not  be  compared  to  a 
few  drops  of  water  sprinkled  on  the  face,  for  He 
was  plunged  into  distress,  and  environed  with 

*Dr.  P.  Doddridge,  Parap.  on  Luke  xiii.  50. 

29 


30  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

sorrows.*  Our  Lord  was  j^^W  with  sufferings 
within,  and  covered  with  them  without.f  He 
was  baptized  with  the  baptism  of  His  suffer- 
ings, bathed  in  blood,  and  plunged  in  death. J 
And  this  metaphor  of  immersion  in  water,  as 
expressive  of  being  overwhelmed  by  affliction, 
is  frequent,  both  in  Scriptures  and  in  Classical 
writers.  §  O  my  God,  says  the  Psalmist,  my 
soul  is  cast  down  within  me.  All  thy  waves  and 
thy  billows  are  gone  over  me.||  Thy  wrath 
lieth  hard  upon  me,  and  thou  hast  afflicted  me 
with  all  thy  waves.  Thy  fierce  wrath  goeth 
over  me;  thy  terrors  have  cut  me  off.  They 
come  round  about  me  daily  like  water. ^  Im- 
mersion into  water  then  is  to  be  considered  as 
exhibiting  the  dreadful  abyss  of  Divine  justice, 
in  which  Christ  for  our  sins  was  for  a  time,  as  it 
were,  absorbed,  as  in  David,  His  type,  He  com- 
plains, "  I  am  come  into  deep  waters  where  the 
floods  overflow  me.'^**  Our  Lord  might  indeed 
by  a  strong  figure  of  speech  be  said  to  have  been 

*  Sir  H.  Trelawney,  on  Luke  xii.  50. 

t  John  Wesley. 

X  Hervey,  Theron,  Vol.  II.  p.  150. 

§  Dr.  Bloomfield,  Gr.  Test.  Vol.  I.  p.  97. 

II  Ps.  xlii.  6,  7. 

^  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  7,  16, 17. 

^  Witsius,  from  Peng.,  p.  23. 


AS   A   FIGURE   OF   CHRIST^S   SUFFERINGS.  31 

immerged  in  suflPerings,  when  He  endured  the 
wrath  of  God  as  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.* 
And  there  is  peculiar  fitness  in  His  describing 
His  agony  and  death  as  a  baptism  with  which 
He  should  be  baptized.  A  change  was  to  take 
place ;  and  for  the  bringing  about  of  that 
change,  immersion  in  a  deep  ocean  of  trouble 
was  actually  indispensable.  He  must  descend 
into  darkness,  that  the  waves  and  the  storms 
might  go  over  Him.  It  was  needful  that  He 
should  be  covered  by  them.  And  the  emerging 
and  immersion  followed  so  closely  one  on  the 
other,  that  you  cannot  better  describe  the  great 
work,  than  by  saying  of  our  Lord  that  He  had 
a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with.  He  was  plunged 
in  the  raging  waters,  and  then  quickly  with- 
drawn, f  He  was  baptized  of  John,  then,  to 
signify  that  He  was  sent  that  He  might  be 
haptizedj  that  is,  immersed  in  death,  and  that 
He  might  wash  away  our  sins  with  His  own 
blood.  J  And  here  our  Lord  intimates  the  pur- 
pose for  which  He  had  taken  upon  Him  our 
nature ;  and  foresees  the  hour  when  the  deep 
waters  of  anguish  should  go  even  over  His  soul.§ 

*  Scott,  Com.  on  Matt.  xx.  20-23. 
i  t  Dr.  H.  Melville,  on  Luke  xii.  50. 
X  Archb.  Sumner,  Expos.  Lee.  on  Luke  xii.  49,  50- 
I  Hayne's  Cyclopedia,  Vol.  I.  p.  181. 


VII. 

AS  A  FIGURE    OF    DEATH    AND    RESURRECTION. 

First  taught  by  Paul— Rom.  vi.  3, 4,— Reiterated,  1  Cor. 
XV.  29. — Fulfilled  only  by  immersion— This  point  ought 
to  be  frankly  admitted,  and  indeed  cannot  be  denied  with 
any  show  of  reason.* 

N  order  to  understand  the  figurative 
use  of  baptism,  we  must  bear  in  mind 
the , IV ell-known  fact  that  the  candidate 
in  the  primitive  Church  was  immersed 
in  water  and  raised  out  of  it  again.f  If  baptism 
had  been  then  performed  as  it  is  now  among  us,  we 
should  never  have  so  much  as  heard  of  this  form 
of  expression,  of  dying  and  rising  again,  in  this 
rite.J  That  it  has  been  changed  is  indeed  a  cala- 
mity, for  it  placed  before  the  eyes  most  aptly  the 
symbolical  meaning  of  baptism. §  On  this  ac- 
count I  could  wish  that  such  as  are  to  be  bap- 
tized  should  be  completely  immersed  in  the  water, 

*  Edinburgh  Reviewers. 
fTholuck  on  Rom.  vi.  4. 
:|:  Bishop  Hoadly,  Rom.  vi.  4. 
§  Matthie's  Bib.  Exp,  of  Bap, 

32 


FIGURE  OF  DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION.    33 

according  to  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  signification  of  the  ordinance,  not 
because  I  thinlv  it  necessary  (to  salvation)  but  be- 
cause it  would  be  beautiful  to  have  a  full  and 
perfect  sign  of  so  perfect  a  things  as  also,  without 
doubt  it  was  instituted  by  Christ.'*'  The  learned, 
also,  have  rightly  reminded  us  that,  on  account 
of  this  emblematical  meaning  of  baptism,  the  rite 
of  immersion  ought  to  have  been  retained  in  the 
Christian  Church.t  A  more  striking  symbol  -h 
could  not  be  chosen.J;  The  same  plunging  into 
water  exhibits  to  our  view  that  dreadful  abyss  of 
Divine  justice,  in  which  Christ,  on  account  of 
our  sins,  was  for  a  time  in  a  manner  swallowed 
up.  Abiding  under  the  water,  however  short 
the  time,  denotes  His  descent  to  hades.  Emer- 
sion out  of  the  water  presents  us  with  an  image 
of  that  victory  which  He,  though  dead,  obtained 
over  death,  even  in  His  own  pavilion,  that  is,  the 
sepulchre. §  And  thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth 
us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  || 
in  like  manner  the  baptism  of  believers  is  em- 

*  Martin  Luther's  Works,  Vol.  II.,  p.  76. 
f  Rosenmuller,  Prof,  of  Theol.  at  Leipsic. 
t  Lange  on  Inf.  Bap.  1834. 
§  Tilenus,  from  Booth,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  142, 148. 
11  Scripture. 

3 


34  CHEISTIA15    BAPTISM. 

blematical  of  their  own  death,  burial  and  resur- 
rection*— Christ  the  first-fruits ;  afterward  they 
that  are  Christ's  at  His  coming.f  We  are  there- 
fore in  baptism  conformed  not  only  to  the  death 
of  Christ,  but  also  to  His  burial  and  resurrection.^ 
The  fellowship  so  signified  is  not  merely  a  fel- 
lowship of  humiliation,  but  also  of  exaltation ; 
not  alone  a  communion  of  death  and  the  grave, 
but  a  communion  likewise  of  resurrection  and  as- 
cension.§  Since  therefore,  we  indeed  in  water, 
but  He  in  the  earth,  and  we  in  respect  to  sin, 
but  He  in  respect  to  the  body  was  buried,  on  this 
account  He  did  not  say,  "  planted  together  in 
death,"  but  ^^  in  the  likeness  of  death."  ||  O,  strange 
and  wonderful  transaction !  Xot  truly  did  we 
die,  nor  were  we  truly  buried,  nor  truly  cruci- 
fied did  we  rise  again ;  but  the  imitation  was 
in  a  similitude,  while  the  salvation  was  in  truth.^ 

*  MacKnight  on  Rom.  vi.  4. 

t  Scripture. 

J  Estius,  Rom.  Cath. 

§  Baumgarten  on  Acts  xix.  1-36. 

II  Chrysostom  on  Rom.  Dis.  xi. 

f  Cyril,  4th  Century,  Institution  ii. 


yiii. 

AS  A  SYMBOL  OF  REGEXE RATION. 

Taught  by  Paul,  Rom.  vi.  4.  Col.  ii.  12— Alluded  to  in  Titus 
ii  .  5~Implied  in  Acts  six.  2,  3. 

T.  PAUL'S  view  of  the  Christian  life, 
throughout  the  sixth,  seventh,  and 
eighth  chapters  of  Eomans,  is  that  it 
consists  of  a  death  and  a  resurrection  ; 
the  new-made  Christian  dies  to  sin,  to  the  world, 
to  the  flesh,  and  to  the  Law ;  this  death  he  un- 
dergoes at  his  first  entrance  into  communion 
with  Christ,  and  it  is  both  typified  and  realized 
when  he  is  buried  beneath  the  baptismal  waters. 
But  no  sooner  is  he  thus  dead  with  Christ,  than 
he  rises  with  Him;  he  is  made  partaker  of 
Christ's  resurrection  ;  he  is  united  to  Christ's 
body ;  he  lives  in  Christ  and  to  Christ ;  he  is 
no  longer  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  Spirit."^  In 
Romans  vi.  4,  there  is  a  plain  allusion  to  the 
ancient  custom  of  baptism  by  immersion ;  and 
I  agree  with  Koppe  and  RosenmuUer,  that  there 
is  reason  to  regret  it  should  have  been  abandoned 

*  Conybeajre  and  Howson,  Vol.  II.  p.  170. 

35 


36  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM 

in  most  Christian  Churches,  especially  as  it  has 
so  evidently  a  reference  to  this  mystic  sense  of 
baptism.*  Indeed,  this  passage  cannot  be  un- 
derstood unless  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
primitive  baptism  was  by  immersion. f  For 
we  assuredly  believe  that  Paul  did  not  under- 
stand the  use  of  a  figure  in  writing,  if  he  made 
sprinkling  to  represent  burial. J  The  Germans 
call  baptism  tauff,  from  depth,  which  they  call 
tieff  in  their  language ;  as  if  it  were  proper  those 
should  be  deeply  immersed,  who  are  baptized. 
And  truly,  if  you  consider  what  baptism  signi- 
fies, you  shall  see  the  same  thing  required  ;  for 
it  signifies  that  our  native  character,  which  is 
full  of  sin,  entirely  of  flesh  and  blood  as  it  is, 
may  be  overwhelmed  by  divine  grace.  The 
mode  of  baptism,  therefore,  ought  to  answer  to 
the  signification  of  baptism,  so  that  it  may  show 
forth  a  sign  that  is  certain  and  full§ — the  con- 
vert being  plunged  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
water  to  represent  his  death  to  the  life  of  sin, 
and  then  raised  from  this  momentary  burial  to 
represent  His  resurrection  to  the  life  of  right- 

*  Dr.  Bloomfield,  Recens.  Synop.  on  Rom.  vi.  4. 
t  Conybeare  and  Howson,  Vol.  II.  p.  169. 
X  Dr.  G.  Stanhope,  Rom.  vi.  4. 
^  Martin  Luther  Opera,  Tom.  I.,  fol.  72. 


AS  A  SYMBOL  OF  REGENERATION.  37 

eousness."^  For  he  that  is  immersed  in  water, 
which  has  the  power  of  suffocating,  is  considered 
as  in  a  state  of  death ;  and  likewise  as  long  as 
he  continues  immersed  he  is  there  buried.  But 
when  he  rises  out  of  the  water,  he  rises  as  it 
were,  from  a  state  of  death,  and  begins  to  live 
afresh.  Of  what  kind  this  newness  of  life  is, 
baptism  also  at  the  same  time  distinctly  repre- 
sents. For  as  water  has  the  power  of  washing 
and  purifying,  it  signifies  that,  in  virtue  of  our 
Lord's  death,  the  person  baptized  is  cleansed 
from  sin,  and  that  he  ought  to  live  a  new  and 
pure  life.f  And  it  is  impossible  to  see  this 
significant  act,  in  which  the  convert  goes  down 
into  the  water,  travel-worn  and  soiled  with  dust, 
disappear  for  one  moment,  and  then  emerge 
pure  and  fresh,  without  feeling  that  the  symbol 
answers  to,  and  interprets  a  strong  craving  of, 
the  human  heart.  It  is  the  desire  to  wash  away 
that  which  is  past  and  evil. J  Hence  I  repeat, 
the  learned  have  rightly  reminded  us  that,  on 
account  of  this  emblematical  meaning  of  bap- 
tism, the  rite  of  immersion  ought  to  have  been 
retained    in  the  Christian    Church.  §     For,  in 

*  Conybeare,  Life  of  Paul,  Vol.  I.,  p.  438. 
t  Rosenmuller  Expl.  Epis.  ad  Eph.  in  c.  iv.  5. 
X  F.  "W.  Robertson,  Sermons,  1st  Series,  p.  137. 
I  Rosenmuller  as  above. 


38  CHEISTIAN    BAPTISM. 

sprinkling  the  symbolical  meaning  of  the  or- 
dinance is  wholly  lost."^  A  little  water  on  the 
face  may  suffice  to  represent  a  washing,  yet  it 
cannot  be  thought  to  represent  such  an  entire 
washing  as  baptism  may  seem  to  have  been  in- 
tended for — while  the  new  birth  of  a  believer 
is  more  express  in  immersion.  For  the  believer 
being  plunged  in  the  water  of  baptism,  is  buried 
with  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  apostle  expresses  it ; 
and  coming  out  of  the  water  quits  the  tomb 
with  his  Saviour,  and  more  perfectly  represents 
the  mystery  of  Jesus  Christ  who  regenerates 
Him.  t  This  solemn  and  interesting  observ- 
ance, then,  puts  forward  high  claims  on  the  un- 
derstanding and  conscience  of  every  Christian.  J 
For  what  greater  shame  can  there  be,  than  for  a 
man  to  profess  himself  a  Christian  man  because 
he  is  baptized,  and  yet  he  knoweth  not  what 
baptism  is,  nor  what  the  dipping  in  the  water 
doth  betoken  ?  § 

*Eheinhard  Ethics,  Vol.  V.  p.  79. 
f  Dr.  Towerson,  Sac.  Bap.  part  3,  pp.  51,  57. 
I  E.  Bickersteth,  on  Bap.  p.  20. 

§  Archb.  Cranmer,  in  Sermon  on  Bap.  Ded.  to  King  Ed- 
ward VI.,  of  Eng. 


IX. 

AS   PEEFIGUEED   AT   THE   EED   SEA. 

Moreover,  brethren,  I  would  not  that  ye  should  be  ignorant, 
how  that  all  our  fathers  were  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed 
through  the  sea ;  and  were  all  baptized  unto  Moses  in  the 
cloud  and  in  the  sea."  1  Cor.  x.  1,  2. 

HE  passage  of  the  Israelites  through 
the  Red  Sea  wonderfully  agrees  with 
our  baptism,  and  represents  the  grace 
it  was  designed  to  express.  For  as  in 
baptism,  when  performed  in  the  primitive  man- 
ner, by  immersion  and  emersion,  the  persons  bap- 
tized are  overwhelmed,  so  in  the  Mosaic  bap- 
tism we  have  an  immersion  and  an  emersion; 
THAT,  when  they  descended  into  the  depths  of 
the  sea ;  this,  when  they  went  out  and  came  to 
the  oppos^ite  shore.*  But  this  allegory  is  ob- 
viously not  to  be  pressed  minutely ;  for  neither 
did  they  enter  the  cloud  nor  were  they  wetted 
by  the  water  of  the  sea.      They  passed  under 

*  Turretine,  Dispu.,  De  Bap.  Nubis  et  Maris,  g  24. 

39 


40  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

both,  as  the  baptized  passes  under  water. "^ 
The  cloud  and  the  sea  took  tlie  fathers  out  of 
sight,  and  restored  them  again  to  view,  and 
this  is  what  the  water  does  to  those  who  are 
baptized.f  The  cloud  hung  over  the  heads  of 
the  Israelites;  and  so  the  water  is  over  those 
that  are  baptized.  The  sea  surrounded  them 
on  each  side  ;  and  so  the  water  encompasses 
those  that  are  baptized. J 

On  the  other  hand,  it  appears  necessary  to 
add,  that  all  attempts  to  render  the  tyj^e  more 
perfect  by  means  of  trifling  suppositions,  such 
as  that  drops  fell  from  the  cloud  on  the  Israel- 
ites, or  that  they  were  sprinkled  by  the  sea, 
must  be  utterly  discarded. §  1.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  intimation  of  this  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 2.  The  supposition  is  contrary  to  the 
very  design  of  the  cloud.  It  was  not  a  natural 
cloud,  but  was  a  symbol  of  the  Divine  presence 
and  protection.  It  was  not  to  give  rain  on  the 
Israelites,  or  on  the  land,  but  it  Avas  to  guide, 
and  be  an  emblem  of  the  care  of  God.  3,  It  is 
doing  violence  to  the  Scriptures  to  introduce  sup- 

*  Dean  Alford,  Gr.  Test.  1  Cor.  x.  2. 
t  Bengel's  Gnomon,  1  Cor.  x.  2. 
X  Grotius  on  1  Cor.  x.  2. 
g  Olshausen  on  1  Cor.  x,  2. 


AS   PREFIGURED   AT   THE   RED   SEA.        41 

positions  in  this  manner  without  the  slightest 
authority.  The  probability  is,  that  the  cloud 
extended  over  the  whole  camp  of  Israel,  and 
that  to  those  at  a  distance  it  appeared  as  a  pil- 
lar.* This  ap23earance  of  the  Divine  presence 
was  various,  but  it  is  uniformly  spoken  of  as 
itself  one — a  lofty  column  rising  toward  heaven. 
By  day  it  would  seem  to  have  expanded  as  it 
rose,  and  spread  itself  as  a  kind  of  shade  or  cur- 
tain between  the  Israelites  and  the  sun,  as  the 
Lord  is  said  by  it  to  have  ^  spread  a  cloud  for  a 
covering,'  while  by  night  it  exchanged  the  cloudy 
for  the  illumined  form,  and  diffused  through- 
out the  camp  a  pleasant  light.f  They  were 
baptized  unto  Moses  then  thus :  they  had  him 
as  their  leader  in  the  type  of  baptism ;  for  the 
type  was  this,  the  being  under  the  cloud,  and 
the  passing  through  the  sea.:j:  The  cloud  and 
the  sea  did  for  them,  in  reference  to  Moses,  what 
baptism  does  for  us  in  reference  to  Christ. § 
They  had  fellowship  with  Moses  both  in  the 
shadow  under  the  cloud,  and  in  the  through- 
passing  of  the  sea;    for  beholding  him   going 

*  Dr.  Albert  Barnes,  1  Cor.  x.  2. 

t  Dr.  Fairbairn,  Typol.  of  Scrip.,  p.  98. 

t  Dr.  Blooinfield,  Crit.  Dig.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  478. 

§  Hodge  on  1  Cor.  x.  1-3. 


42  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

through  first,  they  themselves  also  dared  the 
waters ;  as  also  with  us,  Christ  having  first  died 
and  risen,  we  ourselves  also  are  baptized,  imitat- 
ing His  death  through  the  immersion,  and  His 
resurrection  through  the  emersion.*  And  this 
is  the  only  point  of  analogy  between  the  cases, 
and  it  is  all  the  apostle's  argument  requires.f 
Is  it  asked  then — How  were  the  Israelites  bap- 
tized in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea,  seeing  they 
were  neither  immersed — literally — in  the  sea, 
nor  wetted  by  the  cloud  ?  J  It  is  answered — 
Under  the  conduct  of  Moses  they  received  bap- 
tism in  figure,  by  passing  under  the  cloud  and 
through  the  sea.§  When  the  floods  stood  up- 
right like  walls,  and  the  depths  were  congealed 
in  the  heart  of  the  sea,  Jehovah  led  His  re- 
deemed children  into  the  depths  of  the  waters, 
and  buried  them  in  baj^tism,  in  the  sea  and  thick 
covering  cloud.  He  raised  them  up  again,  also, 
and  guided  them  by  His  strength  into  His  holy 
habitation.il  Hence  it  is  concluded  that  the  go- 
ing down  of  the  Israelites  into  the  bottom  and 

*  Dr.  Bloomfield  as  above. 

t  Hodge  as  above. 

X  Witsius  CEcon.  Feed,  liv.,  c.  10,  §  11. 

\  Douay  Test.  Rom.  Cath.,  1  Cor.  x.  2. 

II  Weiss,  (a  converted  Jew)  on  Old  Test.  Scrip. 


AS    PREFIGURED    AT   THE    RED   SEA.        43 

middle  of  the  sea,  and  their  coming  up  from 
thence  to  dry  ground,  have  a  great  agreement 
with  the  rite  of  Christian  baptism,  as  it  was  ad- 
ministered in  the  first  times.* 

*  Gataker,  Adv.  Miscel.,  c.  iv. 


X. 

AS   PREFIGUEED    BY   THE   AEK. 

1  Peter  iii.  20,  21. 

HE  water  of  baptism  is  here  called  the 
antitype  to  the  water  of  the  flood,  be- 
cause the  flood  was  a  type  or  emblem 
of  baptism  in  the  three  following  par- 
ticulars :  1.  As  by  building  the  Ark  and  entering 
into  it,  Noah  showed  his  strong  faith  in  the  pro- 
mise of  God  concerning  his  preservation  by  the 
very  water  which  was  to  destroy  the  antedilu- 
vians for  their  sins,  so  by  giving  ourselves  to  be 
buried  in  the  water  of  baptism,  we  show  a  like 
faith  in  God\s  promise,  that  though  we  die  and 
are  buried,  He  will  save  us  from  death,  the 
punishment  of  sin,  by  raising  us  from  the  dead 
at  the  last  day.  2.  As  the  preserving  of  Noah 
alive  durins:  the  nine  months  he  was  in  the 
flood,  is  an  emblem  of  the  2:>reseri'ation  of  the 
souls  of  believers  while  in  the  state  of  the  dead,  so 
the  preserving  believers  alive  while  buried  in  the 
44 


AS   PREFIGURED   BY   THE   ARK.  45 

waters  of  baptism,  is  a  prefiguration  of  the  same 
event.  3.  As  the  water  of  the  deluge  destroyed  the 
wicked  antediluvians,  but  preserved  Noah  by- 
bearing  up  the  Ark  in  which  he  was  shut  up 
till  the  waters  were  assuaged,  and  he  went  out 
of  it  to  live  again  upon  the  earth,  so  baptism 
may  be  said  to  destroy  the  wicked  and  to  save 
the  righteous,  as  it  prefigures  both  these  events : 
the  death  of  the  sinner  it  prefigures  by  burying 
the  baptized  persons  in  the  water;  and  the 
salvation  of  the  righteous,  by  raising  the  bap- 
tized person  out  of  the  water  to  live  a  new  life.* 
There  is,  also,  a  great  analogy  between  salvation 
by  the  Ark  and  that  by  baptism,  inasmuch  as 
the  one  did  represent  and  the  other  doth  exhibit 
Christ  Himself  t 

*  Macknight  on  1  Peter  iii.  20,  21. 
t  Dr.  Owen  on  same. 


XI. 

AS    ILLUSTRATED    BY   DIVERS   BAPTISMS. 

Hebrews  vi.  2. 

lAPHOROUS   BAPTISMOUS,  the 

Apostle  calls  divers  baptisms ^  that 
is,  various  immersions.*  And  whoever 
considers  the  number  of  unclean  per- 
sons who  daily  had  need  of  washing,  and  he 
who  reads  the  Talmudic  treatises  concerning 
purifications,  and  collections  of  water  convenient 
for  these  purposes,  will  be  easily  persuaded  that 
Bethesda  and  other  pools  at  Jerusalem  subserved 
this  design. t  Indeed,  under  the  law,  there 
were,  as  the  Apostle  speaks,  divers  baptisms.J 
For  the  history  of  Israel  and  the  Law  of  Moses 
abound  with  such  lustrations. §  In  the  Levitical 
ritual  many  baptisms,  or  immersions  of  the  body 
in  the  water,  were  enjoined,  as  emblematical  of 

*  Dr.  J.  Alting,  Com.  on  Heb.,  p.  260. 

t  D'Outreenius. 

J  Josiah  Conder,  Esq. 

\  Smith's  Bib.  Die,  Art.  Bap. 

46 


AS   ILLUSTRATED   BY   DIVERS   BAPTISMS.  47 

that  purity  of  mind,  which  is  necessary  to  the 
worshiping  of  God  acceptably.*  Aaron  and  his 
sons,  on  their  being  consecrated  to  the  priest- 
hood, were  to  be  icholly  washed  with  water,  as 
well  as  sprinkled  with  blood  at  the  door  of  the 
tabernacle.  Ex.  xxix.  4,  21.  And  for  clean- 
sing from  various  ceremonial  uncleanness,  also, 
the  Israelites  were  directed  to  wash  themselves. 
Lev.  xiii.  54-58;  xiv.  8,  9;  xvi.  4,  24;  xxii.' 
6.  Now  Christians  are  a  royal  priesthood,  and 
they  have  an  initiatory  washing,  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  to  consecrate  them  to  their  high  and 
holy  office.f  And  as  the  Jews  were  ceremonially 
purified,  so  Christians  are  emblematically  washed 
by  the  purifying  waters  of  baptism. J  Thus  we 
have  a  further  instruction  on  baptism  in  the 
washings  appointed  by  the  law  of  Moses. §  For 
the  baptisms  with  the  Jews  were  not  by  sprink- 
ling, but  in  addition  to  washing  the  whole 
body,  an  entire  immersion. ||  They  bathed  them- 
selves all  over.lf  Having  come  from  the  mar- 
ket, where  among  a  crowd  of  men,  they  might 

*  Dr.  Macknight,  Com.  on  Heb.  vi.  2. 

f  E.  Bickersteth  on  Bap.,  pp.  6,  7. 

X  Webster  and  Wilkinson,  Diaph.  Bap,,  Heb.  vi.  2. 

§  E.  Bickersteth  as  above. 

II  Stack,  His.  Bap.,  p.  8. 

^  Vatablus,  Prof,  of  Heb.,  Paris,  on  Mark  vii.  4. 


48  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

have  come  in  contact  with  unclean  persons,  they 
eat  not  without  having  first  bathed  themselves, 
Mark  vii.  4,  which  is  not  to  be  understood  of 
the  washing  of  the  hands,  (as  interpreted  by 
Lightfoot  and  Wetstein,)  but  of  immersing, 
which  the  word  always  means  in  the  Classics 
and  the  New  Testament.*  The  other  ordinary 
lustrations  of  the  Jews  were  performed  in  the 
same  way.f  For  by  the  Hebrew  canons,  all 
that  are  unclean,  whether  men  or  vessels,  are 
not  cleansed  but  by  dipping  or  baptizing  in 
water.J  And  wherever  in  the  law  washing  of 
the  flesh  or  clothes  is  mentioned,  it  means  nothing 
else  than  dipping  of  the  whole  body  in  a  laver ; 
for  if  a  man  dips  himself  all  over  except  the  tip 
of  his  little  finger,  he  is  still  in  his  uncleanness. 
A  bed  that  is  wholly  defiled,  if  he  dip  it  part 
by  part,  is  pure.  If  he  dip  the  bed  in  the  pool, 
although  its  feet  are  plunged  in  the  thick  clay 
at  the  bottom  of  the  pool,  it  is  clean.  What 
shall  he  do  with  a  pilloAv  or  bolster  of  skin  ? 
He  must  dip  them  and  lift  them  out  by  the 
fringes. §      And  upon  whatsoever  any  of  them 

*  Dr.  H.  A.  W.  Meyer,  Manual  on  Mark  and  Luke. 

t  Schneckenberger,  from  Jewish  Talmud.  See  Adkins,  p.  10. 

X  Ainsworth,  on  Lev.  xi.  32. 

g  Rabbi  Maimonides,  Hilchot.  Mikvaal,  c.  I.  §  2. 


AS   ILLUSTRATED   BY    DIVEES    BAPTISMS.  49 

(unclean  animals)  cloth  fall,  it  shall  be  unclean, 
whether  it  be  any  vessel  of  wood,  or  raiment,  or 
skin,  or  sack,  whatsoever  vessel  it  be  wherein 
any  work  is  done,  it  must  be  put  into  water,  and 
it  shall  be  unclean  until  even :  so  it  shall  be 
cleansed.*  And  many  other  things  there  be 
which  they  have  received  to  hold,  as  the  wash- 
ing of  cups  and  pots,  brazen  vessels  and  of 
tables,  t 

Hence  the  reason  why  Christ  prescribed  im- 
mersion in  baptism,  from  which  the  several 
figures  found  in  the  New  Testament  are  taken, 
seems  to  have  been  that  some  of  His  first  fol- 
lowers were  already  accustomed  to  religious 
washings  of  this  kind ;  especially  the  Jews  who 
had  been  used  to  Levitical  washings.J  And  the 
symbolical  signification  of  the  rite  of  baptism 
was  so  intelligible  that  as  soon  as  the  Jews  saw 
John  practice  it,  they  understood  what  he  meant 
by  it.§ 

*  Lev.  xi.  32. 
t  Mark  vii.  4. 

j  Storr  and  Flatt,  Bib.  Theo.,  p.  216.  Ward's  Ed, 
§  Olshausen,  Com.  on  John  i.  25,  27. 
4 


XII. 

AS  THE  DOOR  TO  THE  LOCAL  CHURCH. 

Regeneration  admits  to  the  Spiritual  Church — baptism  to  the 
local  organization — One  being  the  silent  and  unseen  death 
to  sin,  and  resurrection  to  life— the  other  a  public  burial 
with  Christ,  and  rising  with  Him  to  walk  in  newness  of  life. 
The  invisible  Church  has  no  ordinances — the  visible  has 
two — The  Lord's  Baptism  and  Supper. 

APTISM  is  God's  initiatory  rite  to 
the  external  privileges  of  religion. 
This  was  God's  door  into  His  sacred 
Sanctuary.  Without  undergoing  this 
rite  no  person,  old  or  young,  can  scripturally 
and  properly  be  identified  with  the  congrega- 
tion of  the  Lord,  nor  be  canonically  entitled  to 
its  religious  privileges.  *  It  was  necessary  that 
some  mark  should  be  devised  by  which  the  fol- 
lower of  Christ  might  be  distinguished,  and  by 
consenting  to  bear  which  he  might  give  proof  of 
his  loyalty.     Some  initiatory  rite  was  necessary, 

«- Thorn,  on  Inf.  Bap.,  pp.  550-562. 

50 


AS   THE   DOOR  TO   THE   LOCAL   CHURCH.   51 

some  public  formality,  in  which  the  new  volun- 
teer might  take,  as  it  were,  the  military  oath  and 
confess  his  Chief  before  men.  If  such  a  cere- 
mony could  be  devised,  which  should  at  the 
same  time  indicate  that  the  new  votary  had 
taken  upon  himself  not  merely  a  new  service, 
but  an  entirely  new  mode  of  life,  it  would  be  so 
much  the  better.  Now  there  was  already  in  use 
among  the  Jews  the  rite  of  baptism — and  it 
had  acquired  a  meaning  and  associations,  which 
were  universally  understood  (See  page  49).  This 
ceremony,  then,  Christ  adopted,  and  He  made 
it  absolutely  binding  upon  all  His  followers  to 
submit  to  it.*  Our  Lord's  own  Commission 
conjoins  the  making  of  disciples  with  their 
baptism.  And  the  conduct  of  the  Apostles  is 
the  plainest  comment  on  both ;  for  so  soon  as 
ever  men,  convinced  by  their  preaching,  asked 
for  guidance  and  direction,  their  first  exhorta- 
tion was  to  repentance  and  baptism,  that  thus 
the  convert  should  be  at  once  publicly  received 
into  the  fold  of  Christ,  f  And  if  any  be  so 
impudent  as  to  say,  it  is  not  the  meaning  of 
Christ,  that  baptizing  should  immediately, 
without  delay,  follow  discipling,  they  are  con- 

*  Ecce  Homo,  pp.  95,  96. 

t  Smith's  Bib.  Die.  Am.  Ed.  p.  236. 


52  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

futed  by  the  constant  example  of  Scripture.* 
Then  they  that  gladly  received  His  word  were 
baptized ;  and  the  same  day  there  were  added 
unto  them  about  three  thousand  souls. f  Thus 
the  Sacrament  of  baptism  was  regarded  as  the 
door  of  entrance  into  the  Christian  Church,  and 
was  held  to  be  so  indispensable  that  it  could  not 
be  omitted  even  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul — who 
although  he  had  been  called  to  the  apostleship 
by  the  direct  intervention  of  Christ  Himself,  yet 
he  was  commanded  to  receive  baptism  at  the 
hands  of  a  simple  disciple.  J  Hence  how  ex- 
cellent soever  any  man's  character  is,  he  must  be 
baptized  before  he  can  be  looked  upon  as  com- 
pletely a  member  of  the  church  of  Christ.  § 
And  what  man  dare  go  in  a  way  which  hath 
neither  precept  nor  example  to  warrant  it,  from 
a  way  that  hath  a  full  current  of  both?  Yet 
they  that  will  admit  members  into  the  visible 
church  without  baptism,  do  so.  ||  In  vain  too, 
should  we  argue  that  Ave  may  institute  other 
rites  and  ceremonies. Tf      For  one    baptism  is 

*  Baxter's  Plain  Scrip.  Proof,  p.  126. 
t  Acts  ii.  41. 

J  Conybeare  and  Howson,  Vol.  I.  p.  438, 
§  Dr.  P.  Doddridge,  Lectures,  p.  508. 
II  Baxter's  Plain  Scrip.  Proof,  p.  24. 
%  Dr.  King  on  Presb.  Qh.  Gov.  p.  20, 


AS  THE  DOOR  TO  THE  LOCAL  CHURCH.  53 

spoken  of,  as  also  one  faith,  because  of  the  doc- 
trine respecting  the  initiation ,  being  one  in  all 
the  church,  which  has  been  taught  to  baptize 
with  invocation  of  the  Trinity,  and  to  symbolize 
the  Lord's  death  and  resurrection  by  the  sinking 
down  and  coming  up."^ 

*"  Anonymous. 


XIII. 

AS    RELATED   TO   THE   LORD's   SUPPER. 

Both  ordinances  of  the  Church,  1  Cor.  ii.  2.— One  is  initia- 
tive, Acts  ii.  41.— The  other  commemorative,  1  Cor.  ii.  24, 
25.— Baptism  then  is  prerequisite.  Acts  ii.  42,  46. 

EFORE  entering  upon  the  argument 
I  before  us,  it  is  but  just  to  remark  that 
in  one  principle  the  Baptist  and  Pedo- 
baptist  churches  agree.  They  both 
agree  in  rejecting  from  the  communion  of  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  and  denying  the  rights  of 
church  fellowship  to  all  who  have  not  been  bap- 
tized. Valid  baptism  the  Baptists  consider 
essential  to  constitute  visible  church  member- 
ship. This  also  we  hold.  The  only  question, 
then,  that  here  divides  us  is.  What  is  essential 
to  valid  baptism  ?  The  Baptists,  in  passing  the 
sentence  of  disfranchisement  upon  all  other 
Christian  churches,  have  only  acted  upon  a  prin- 
ciple held  in  common  with  all  other  Christian 
churches,  viz.,  that  baptism  is  essential  to  church 
membership.  According  to  their  views  of  bap- 
tism they  certainly  are  consistent  in  restricting 
54 


AS  RELATED  TO  THE  LORD's  SUPPER.  55 

thus  their  communion.  And  herein  they  act 
upon  the  same  principle  as  other  churches,  i.  e., 
they  admit  only  those  whom  they  deem  bap- 
tized persons  to  the  communion  table.  Of  course 
they  must  be  their  own  judges  as  to  what  bap- 
tism is.  It  is  evident  that  according  to  our 
views  of  baptism,  we  can  admit  them  to 
our  communion ;  but  with  their  views  of  bap- 
tism, it  is  equally  evident  they  can  never  recip- 
rocate the  courtesy.  And  the  charge  of  dose 
communion  is  no  more  applicable  to  the  Baptists 
than  to  us,  inasmuch  as  church  fellowship  with 
them  is  determined  by  as  liberal  principles  as  it 
is  with  any  other  Protestant  churches;  so  far,  I 
mean,  as  the  present  subject  is  concerned.*  Did 
we  hold  that  only  believers  who  have  been  im- 
mersed are  baptized  we  should  practice  strict 
communion,  and  we  should  almost  regard  it  an 
insult  to  be  required  to  give  it  up  without  a 
change  of  views  on  the  subject  of  baptism. 
We  as  Pedobaptists  are  also  ^  close  commu- 
nionists,'  and  we  hope  we  shall  never  cease  to  be 
be  such.  The  only  legitimate  subject  of  contro- 
versy between  us  and  the  Baptists,  are  the  suh- 
jeds  and  mode  of  baptism.'^     Open  communion 

•=•  Dr.  Hibbard,  (Methodist),  on  Bap.,  part  2,  p.  174. 
t  Editor  Congregationalist  Journal. 


56  CHRISTIAN     BAPTISM 

is  an  absurdity  when  it  means  communion  with 
the  unbaptized.  I  would  not  for  a  moment 
consider  a  proposition  to  admit  an  unbaptized 
person  to  the  communion,  and  can  I  ask  a  Bap- 
tist so  to  stultify  himself  and  ignore  his  own 
doctrine,  as  to  ask  me  to  commune  with  him, 
while  he  believes  I  am  unbaptized  ?  Let  us 
have  unity  indeed,  but  not  at  the  expense  of 
principle,  and  let  us  not  ask  the  Baptist  to 
ignore,  or  be  inconsistent  with,  his  own  doctrine. 
Neither  let  us  make  an  outcry  at  his  ^  close  con- 
munion,'  which  is  but  faithfulness  to  principle, 
until  we  are  prepared  to  be  open  communionists 
ourselves,  from  which  stupidity  may  we  be  for- 
ever preserved.*  Among  all  the  absurdities 
that  ever  were  held,  none  ever  maintained  that 
any  person  should  partake  of  the  communion 
before  he  was  baptized. f  It  is  certain  that 
Christians  in  general  have  always  been  spoken 
of,  by  the  most  ancient  fathers,  as  baptized 
persons ;  and  it  is  also  certain,  that  as  far  as  our 
knowledge  of  primitive  antiquity  readies,  no 
unbaptized  i)erson  received  the  Lord's  Supper.| 
But  it  was  limited  strictly  to  "  those  who  had 

*  Am.  Presbyterian. 

t  Dr.  Wall,  (Episcopal),  Hist.  Inf.  Bap.,  Part  2,  ch.  9. 

X  Dr.  Philip  Doddridge,  (Cong.),  Lectures,  p.  511. 


57 


embraced  the  gospel,  and  had  been  baptized  into 
the  faith  of  Christ."  For  looking  upon  the 
Lord's  Supper  as  the  highest  and  most  solemn 
act  of  religion,  they  thought  they  could  never  take 
care  enough  in  the  aispensing  of  it.*  It  is,  there- 
fore, an  indispensable  qualification  for  this  ordi- 
nance that  the  candidate  for  communion  be  a  mem- 
ber of  the  visible  church  of  Christ  in  full  stand- 
ing— and  by  this  I  intend  that  he  should  be  a 
man  of  piety,  that  he  should  have  made  a  public 
profession  of  religion,  and  that  he  should  have 
been  baptized f — because  baptism  is  the  first 
among  the  sacraments,  and  the  door  of  the  sacra- 
ments.J  I  agree,  then,  with  the  advocates  of 
close  communion  in  two  points :  1.  That  bap- 
tism is  the  initiatory  ordinance  which  introduces 
into  the  visible  church  ;  of  course,  where  there 
is  no  baptism,  there  are  no  visible  churches. 
2.  That  we  ought  not  to  commune  with  those 
who  are  not  baptized,  and  of  course,  are  not 
church  members,  even  if  we  regard  them  as 
Christians. §  Hence  if  I  believed  with  the  Bap- 
tists, that  none  are  baptized  but  those  who  are 

*  Dr.  Cave,  Prim.  Chr'ty,  part  I.,  ch.  xi,,  p.  333. 
t  Dr.  Dwight's  Syst.  TheoL,  Ser.  160,  B.  S.  ch.  4,  sec.  7. 
X  Bonaventure,  Apud,   Forbesium,  Inst.    Historic  Theol. 
Lib.  X.,  Cap.  IV.,  sec.  9. 
§  Dr.  Griffin,  Letter  on  Bap.,  cited  by  Curtis,  p.  125. 


58  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM. 

immersed  on  profession  of  faith,  then  I  should 
with  them  refuse  to  commune  with  any  others.* 

We  have  then  arrived  at  the  conchision  that 
all,  without  exception  or  limitation,  all  who  repent 
and  believe,  and  are  baptized,  and  only  they,  are 
fit  subjects  for  the  Lord's  Supper. f  That  bap- 
tism was  always  precedent  to  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  none  were  admitted  to  receive  the  eucharist 
till  they  were  baptized.  This  is  so  obvious  to 
every  man  that  it  needs  no  proof:  if  any  one 
doubts  it,  he  may  find  it  clearly  asserted  in  the 
Second  Apology  of  Justin  Martyr,  p.  97. J 

Then,  as  to  open  communionism. — Let  men 
pretend  what  they  can  for  such  a  hotch-potch 
communion  in  their  churches,  I  steadfastly  be- 
lieve the  event  and  issue  of  such  practices  will, 
sooner  or  later,  convince  all  gainsayers,  that  it 
neither  pleaseth  Christ,  nor  is  any  way  promo- 
tive of  true  or  gospel  holiness  in  the  churches  of 
God's  people.  I  shall  never  be  reconciled  to 
that  charity,  which,  in  pretence  of  peace  and 
moderation,  opens  the  Church's  door  to  church- 
disjointing  principles.  § 

*  Dr.  John  Hall,  (Presb.). 

f  Am.  Tract  Society,  Duty  of  the  Pious  Inquirer,  p.  3. 

X  Peter  King,  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Eng.,  Prim.  Ch., 
p.  196. 

§  By  an  Independent  on  the  Sin  and  danger  of  admitting 
Anabaptists  to  the  Congregational  Communion,  &c. 


XIV. 

AS   TO   ITS   NATURE   FROM   BAPTIZO. 

HE  term  baptism  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  word  bapto,  from  which  term 
is  formed  haptizo.'^  It  signifies  ge- 
^nerally  an  immersion  of  whatever 
hind,  and  done  on  whatever  occasion.  But 
when  this  name  was  employed  to  designate  the 
great  initiatory  rite  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  more  especially  when  the  habit  was  firmly 
established  of  speaking  of  this  rite,  as  ho  baptisma 
{the  baptism),  this  term,  however  wide  and 
various  the  application  of  it  may  have  previously 
been,  never  suggested  the  idea  of  any  other 
dipping  than  that  which  took  place  at  the 
ministration  of  this  sacrament.f  The  primary 
signification  of  the  original  then  is  to  dip,  to 
plunge,  immerse. J  Still,  some  may  be  disposed 
to  consider  this  as  not  altogether  certain.  They 
may  perhaps  maintain,  that  the  idea  of  bap — 

*  Coleman's  Ancient  Christianity,  p.  372. 
t  Dr.  Chalmers'  Inst.  Theol.  on  Rom.  vi.  4. 
i  Coleman,  as  above. 

59 


60  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

the  original  etymological  root  of  the  verbs — was 
to  tinge  J  dye,  or  color;  and  that  the  idea  of 
plunging  or  dipping  was  derived  from  this, 
because,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  work  of 
dyeing,  the  act  of  plunging  or  dipping  was 
necessary.  But,  as  the  idea  of  plunging  or  im- 
mersing is  common  to  both  the  words  hapto  and 
baptizo,  while  that  of  dyeing  or  coloring  belongs 
only  to  hapto,  it  would  seem  altogether  probable, 
that  i\\Q,  former  signification  is  the  more  usual 
and  natural  one,  and,  therefore,  more  probably 
the  original  one. 

In  the  New  Testament,  there  is  one  other 
marked  distinction  between  the  use  of  these 
verbs.  Baptizo  and  its  derivatives  are  exclusively 
employed,  when  the  rite  of  baptism  is  to  be 
designated  in  any  form  whatever ;  and  in  this 
case,  bapto  seems  to  be  purposely,  as  well  as 
habitually,  excluded.*  Why  ?  The  verb  bap- 
tizo  has  only  one  acceptation.  It  literally  and 
perpetually  signifies  to  plunge.f  It  is  not,  like 
this  latter  word,  used  to  designate  the  idea  of 
coloriyig  or  dyeing.X  The  distinctive  character- 
istic of  the  institution  of  baptism  is  then,  immer- 

*Prof.  Moses  Stuart  on  Bap.  Nashville  Ed.,  pp.  43-51. 
fStourdza,  Alex.  De,  Russian  State  Councillor. 
X  Prof.  M.  Stuart,  p.  51. 


AS   TO   ITS   NATURE   FROM   BAPTIZO.        61 

sion,  baptisma,  which  cannot  be  omitted  without 
destroying  the  mysterious  sense  of  the  sacra- 
ment, and  contradicting,  at  the  same  time,  the 
etymological  signification  of  the  word  which 
serves  to  designate  it.  Baptism  and  immersion 
are,  therefore,  identical,  and  to  say  :  baptism  by 
aspersion,  is  as  if  one  should  say,  immersion  by 
aspersion,  or  any  other  absurdity  of  the  same 
nature.*  The  word  corresponds,  in  significa- 
tion, with  the  German  taufen,  to  sink  in  the 
deep.f  Thus  we  perceive  how  baptism  was 
administered  among  the  ancients ;  for  they  im- 
mersed the  whole  body  in  water.J  Yet  I  have 
heard  a  disputant,  in  defiance  of  etymology  and 
use,  maintain  that  the  word,  rendered  in  the 
New  Testament,  haptizo,  means  more  properly 
to  sprinkle  than  to  plunge ;  and  in  defiance  of 
all  antiquity,  that  the  former  method  was  the 
earliest,  and  for  many  centuries  the  most  general 
practice  in  baptizing.  But  one  who  argues  in 
this  manner  never  fails,  with  persons  of  know- 
ledge, to  betray  the  cause  he  would  defend ;  and 
though,  with  respect  to  the  vulgar,  bold  asser- 
tions generally  succeed  as  well  as  arguments, 

*  Alex.  De  Stourdza,  as  above. 

t  Brenner,  Rom.  Cath. 

+  John  Calvin,  on  John  iii.  2?. 


62  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

and  sometimes  better,  yet  a  candid  mind  will 
disdain  to  take  the  help  of  a  falsehood  even  in 
support  of  the  truth.*  No  scholar  could,  with- 
out injury  to  his  reputation,  give  the  significa- 
tion to  sprinkle  to  baptizo.f  As,  to  purify :  the 
theory  is  very  beautiful,  but  it  wants  bottom. J 
Never,  even  in  a  solitary  instance,  have  we 
encountered  it  in  the  sense  of  purification. § 


CONSTRUED   WITH   PREPOSITIONS. 

Baptizo,  construed  with  the  preposition  e/s,  is 
to  immerse  into.\\  Into  being  the  original  and 
proper  signification  of  the  preposition,T[  after 
verbs  of  motion  of  any  kind.**  Hence  to  prefer  a 
different  meaning,  appears  very  like  going  out 
of  one's  way  to  serve  a  purpose,  ft 

En  is,  in  accordance  with  the  meaning  of 
baptizo,  (immerse),  not  to  be  understood  instru- 
mentally  (as  by  or  with),  but  on  the  contrary  as 

*  Dr.  G.  Campbell  of  Scotland,  Lee.  on  Pulp.  Eloq.,  p.  480. 

fProf.  Chas,  Anthon  (Episcopal). 

t  Prof.  M.  Stuart,  Bap.  Bal. 

§  Prof.  Wilson  (Presb.).  on  Bap.,  p.  184. 

II  Dr.  E,  Robinson,  N.  T.  Greek  Lexicon. 

%  Dr.  Dwight,  on  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 

**  Prof.  Wilson  on  Bap.,  p.  330. 

It  Meyer,  Corn.  Matt.  iii.  11. 


AS   TO   ITS   NATUEE   FROM    BAPTIZO.        63 

in,  in  the  sense  of  the  element  wherein  the  im- 
mersion takes  place.  "^ 

While  eh  strictly  and  properly  contemplates 
the  point  of  departure  as  tcithin  the  object 
denoted  by  its  regimen.  This  is  demonstrated 
by  our  more  philosophical  grammarians,  and 
ably  maintained  by  Dr.  Carson. f 

Our  Saviour,  therefore,  when  He  was  baptized, 
first  went  down  into  the  nVe?',  was  plunged  into 
the  water  J  and  afterwards  came  up  out  of  it. 
And  it  is  written  (Acts  viii.  38,  39),  that 
Philip  went  down  with  the  eunuch  into  the 
water,  and  there  baptized  him ;  and  it  is  added 
that  the  ordinance  being  administered,  they  both 
came  up  out  of  the  tvater.X  Thus  the  act  of 
baptizing  is  something  quite  distinct  from  either 
the  going  down  into  the  water,  or  the  coming  up 
out  of  it.  Both  went  down  and  both  came  up, 
but  one  only  was  baptized.  § 

*  Anonymous. 

t  Prof.  Wilson,  p.  169. 

X  Qnenstedius,  Antiq.  Bib.,  Par.  1,  c.  iv,  Sec.  2. 

^  Anonymous. 


64  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM. 


DEFINITIONS   OF    BAPTIZO. 

1.  Baptizo,  to  immerse,  to  dip,  Tkommius. 

2.  To  immei'se,  immerge,  submerge,  sink,  Greenfield. 
,  3.  To  dip,  to  immerse,  or  jjlunge  in  water.  Paekhurst. 

4.  To  merge,  immerse,  to  wash,  to  bathe,  Schoettgen. 

5.  To  plunge  under,  or  overwhelm  in  water,  Stephanus. 

6.  To  merge,  or  immerse,  to  submerge,  or  bury  in  water, 

Stephens. 

7.  Properly  it  means  to  dip,  or  immerse  in  water,  Stockius. 

8.  To  dip,  to  immerse  as  we  do  anything  for  the  purpose  of 

dyeing  it,  Scapula. 

9.  To  dip  repeatedly,  Liddell  and  Scott. 

1 0.  To  baptize  is  to  plunge,  Wetstein. 

11.  To  baptize  signifies  only  to  immerse,  not  to  wash,  except 

by  consequence,  Alstidius. 

12.  Baptism  is  an  entire  action  to  wit,  a  dipping,  Melanc- 

thon. 

13.  To  baptize,  to  merge,  to  bathe,  Schrevellius. 

14.  To  immerse  repeatedly  into  liquid,  to  submerge,  to  soak 

thoroughly,  to  saturate,  Donnegan. 

15.  The  proper  signification  of  baptize  is  to  immerse,  plunge 

under,  overwhelm  in  water,  Zanchius. 

16.  To  baptize,  immerse  into  water,  dip,  bathe,  Schindler. 

17.  To  plunge,  to  immerse,  submerge.  Prof.  Rost. 

18.  Baptizo,  I  plunge,  I  plunge  into  water,  dip,  baptize,  bury, 

overwhelm,  Dr.  John  Jones. 

19.  The  native  and  proper  signification  of  baptize  is  to  dip 

into  water,  or  to  plunge  under  water,  Leigh. 

20.  The  Baptists  have  the  advantage  of  us.  Baptism  signifies 

a  total  immersion.  Prof.  Porson, 

21.  GuiDO  Fabricius,  To  baptize,  dip,  bathe. 


XV. 

AS   COREOBORATED  IN   HISTORY. 

N  the  Apostolic  age,  and  some  time 
after,  before  churches  and  baptisteries 
were  generally  erected,  they  baptized 
in  any  place  where  they  had  conve- 
niences, as  John  baptized  in  Jordan,  and  Philip 
baptized  the  eunuch  in  the  wilderness,  and  Paul 
the  jailer  in  his  own  house.*  But  afterwards 
they  had  haptisteria,  or,  as  we  call  them,  fonts, 
built  at  first  near  the  church,  then  in  the  church 
porch,  to  represent  baptism's  being  the  entrance 
into  the  church.  Afterwards  they  were  placed 
in  the  Church  itself.  They  were  usually  very 
large  and  capacious,  not  only  that  they  might 
comport  with  the  general  custom  of  those  times 
of  persons  baptized  being  immersed,  or  put 
under  water,  but  because  the  stated  times  of  bap- 
tism returning  so  seldom,  great  multitudes  were 
usually  baptized  at  the  same  time.f     It  is  evi- 

*  Bingham,  Orig.  Eccle.,  Vol.  I.,  b.  8,  c.  7. 
t  Dr.  Cave,  Prim.  Chris.,  p.  1,  c.  18. 

5  65 


6Q  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

dent,  then,  that  during  the  first  ages  of  the 
Church,  and  for  many  centuries  afterwards,  the 
practice  of  immersion  prevailed;  and  which 
seems  indeed  never  to  be  departed  from,  except 
where  it  was  administered  to  a  person  at  the 
point  of  death,  or  upon  the  bed  of  sickness — 
which  was  considered  as  not  giving  the  full 
privileges  of  baptism.*  This  is  so  plain  and 
clear  by  an  infinite  number  of  passages,  that  as 
one  cannot  but  pity  the  weak  endeavors  of  such 
Pedobaptists  as  would  maintain  the  negative  of 
it,  so  we  ought  to  disown  and  show  a  dislike 
of  the  profane  scoffs  which  some  people  give  to 
the  anti-pedobaptists  merely  for  the  use  of  dip- 
ping ;  when  it  was  in  all  probability  the  way  by 
which  our  blessed  Saviour,  and  for  certain,  was 
the  most  usual  and  ordinary  way  by  which  the 
ancient  Christians  did  receive  their  baptism. 
'Tis  a  great  want  of  prudence,  as  well  as  of 
honesty,  to  refuse  to  grant  to  an  adversary  what 
is  certainly  true,  and  may  he  proved  so.f  For 
we  read,  not  in  Scripture,  that  baptism  was 
otherwise  administered  than  by  plunging  ;  and 
we  are  able  to  make  it  appear  by  the  acts  of 
Councils,  and  by  the  ancient  rituals,  that   for 

*  Encyclo.  Ecclesiastica,  Art.  Bap. 

t  Dr.  Wall,  His.  Inf.  Bap.,  Vol.  ii.  p.  341. 


AS   COEROBORATED  IX    HISTORY.  67 

thirteen  hundred  years  baptism  was  thus  admin- 
istered throughout  the  whole  Church  as  far  as  it 
was  possible.*  Indeed,  we  have  only  to  go  back 
six  or  eight  hundred  years,  and  immersi  )n  was 
the  only  mode,  except  in  case  of  the  few  bap- 
tized on  beds  when  death  was  near.  And  with 
regard  to  such  cases,  it  disqualified]  its  recipient 
for  holy  orders  in  case  he  recovered.  Immer- 
sion was  not  only  universal  six  or  eight  hundred 
years  ago,  but  it  was  primitive  and  apostolic, 
no  case  of  baptism  standing  on  record  by  any 
other  mode  for  the  first  three  hundred  years, 
except  the  few  cases  of  those  baptized  clinically. 
If  any  one  practice  of  the  early  church  is  clearly 
established  it  is  immersion. f  The  passages 
which  refer  to  immersion  are  so  numerous  in  the 
Fathers,  that  it  would  take  a  little  volume  mere- 
ly to  recite  them.  But  enough.  ^  It  is,^  says 
Augusti,  ^a  thing  made  out,  viz.,  the  ancient 
practice  of  immersion.^  So,  indeed,  all  the 
writers  who  have  thoroughly  investigated  this 
subject  conclude.  I  know  of  no  one  usage  of 
ancient  times,  which  seems  to  be  more  clearly 
and  certainly  made  out.     I  cannot  see  how  it  is 

*  Bishop  Bossuet,  from  Stennet  vs.  Russen,  p.  175. 
t  Bishop  Smith  of  Epis.  Ch.  Kentucky,  from  Bliss'  Letters 
on  Bap.  p.  24. 


68  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

possible  for  any  candid  man  who  examines  the 
subject,  to  deny  this.*  For  there  can  be  no 
question  that  the  original  form  of  baptism — the 
very  meaning  of  the  word — was  a  complete  im- 
mersion in  the  deep  baptismal  waters,  and  that, 
for  at  least  four  centuries,  any  other  form  was 
either  unknown  .  or  else  regarded  as  an  excep- 
tional, almost  a  monstrous  case.f  And  it  is  well 
known  that  all  the  Greek  and  Oriental  churches, 
with  a  population  of  one  hundred  millions, 
though  adopting  the  baptism  of  children,  retain 
immersion  to  this  day,  as  essential  to  the  validity 
of  the  rite,  and  as  Bunsen  remarks,  deny  that 
there  is  any  efficacy  in  the  Western  Roman  Ca- 
tholic— form  of  baptism. J 

As  to  the  question  of  fact  then  the  testimony 
is  ample  and  decisive.  No  matter  of  Church 
History  is  clearer.  The  evidence  is  all  one  way ; 
and  all  church  historians  of  any  repute  agree  in 
accepting  it.  AYe  cannot  claim  even  originality 
in  teaching  it  in  a  Congregational  Seminary. 
And  we  really  feel  guilty  of  a  kind  of  anach- 
ronism in  writing  an  article  to  insist  upon  it. 

*  Prof.  M.  Stuart  on  Bap.,  p,  23.   Goodwyn  &  Go's.  Ed. 
t  London  Quarterly  Review,  from  Everts'  Law  of  Bap.,  p. 
43. 
X  New  Am,  Encyclopedia,  Art.  Bap. 


AS   CORROBORATED  IN   HISTORY.  69 

It  is  a  point  on  which  Ancient,  Mediaeval  and 
Modern  Historians  alike,  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant, Lutheran  and  Calvinist,  have  no  contro- 
versy. And  the  simple  reason  for  this  unani- 
mity is  that  the  statements  of  the  early  Fathers 
are  so  clear,  and  the  light  shed  upon  these  state- 
ments from  the  early  customs  of  the  church  is  so 
conclusive,  that  no  historian  who  cares  for  his 
reputation  would  dare  to  deny  it,  and  no  his- 
torian "who  is  worthy  of  the  name  W'Ould  wish 
to.  There  are  some  historical  questions  con- 
cerning the  early  church  on  which  the  most 
learned  writers  disagree,  for  example,  the  ques- 
tion of  infant  baptism,  but  on  this  one  of  the 
early  practice  of  immersion  the  most  distinguish- 
ed Antiquarians,  such  as  Bingham,  Augusti, 
(Coleman),  Smith  (Dictionary  of  the  Bible),  and 
Historians,  such  as  Mosheim,  Gieseler,  Hase, 
Neander,  Milman,  Schaff,  Alzog  (Catholic),  hold 
a  common  language.  The  following  extract 
from  Coleman's  Antiquities,  very  accurately  ex- 
presses what  all  agree  to.  ^^  In  the  primitive 
church,  immersion  was  undeniably  the  common 
mode  of  baptism.  The  utmost  that  can  be  said 
oisprinhling  in  that  early  jDeriod  is  that  it  was, 
in  case  of  necessity,  permitted  as  an  exception  to 
a  general  rule.     This  fact  is  so  well  established 


70  CHEISTIAN    BAPTISM 

that  it  were  needless  to  adduce  authorities  in 
proof  of  it."  As  one  further  illustration  we 
quote  from  Schaff' s  ^'  Apostolic  Church  -^  "  As 
to  the  outward  mode  of  administering  this  ordi- 
nance, immersion,  and  not  sprinkling,  was  un- 
questionably the  original,  normal  form/^  But 
while  immersion  was  the  universal  custom,  an 
abridgement  of  the  rite  was  freely  allowed  and 
defended  in  cases  of  urgent  necessity,  such  as 
sickness  and  approaching  death,  and  the  peculiar 
form  of  sprinkling  thus  came  to  be  known  as 
*'  clinical'^  baptism,  or  the  baptism  of  the  sick. 
It  is  somewhat  significant  that  no  controversy 
of  any  account  ever  arose  in  the  church  on  this 
question  of  the  form  of  baptism,  down  to  the 
Reformation.  And  hence  it  is  difficult  to  de- 
termine with  complete  accuracy  just  when  im- 
mersion gave  way  to  sprinkling  as  the  common 
church  practice.  The  two  forms  were  employed, 
one  as  the  rule,  the  other  as  the  exception,  until 
as  Christianity  traveled  northward  into  a  colder 
climate,  the  exception  silently  grew  to  be  the 
rule. 

As  late  as  the  thirteenth  century  immersion 
still  held  its  ground,  as  is  shown  by  a  passage 
in  the  Summa  Theologica  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas, 
where  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  two  modes 


AS   CORROBORATED  IN   HISTORY.  71 

of  baptism  are  compared,  and  the  conclusion  is 
drawn  that  immersion  is  the  safer  because  the 
more  common  form  (quia  hoc  habet  communion 
usus).  Three  centuries  later,  in  the  time  of  the 
Reformers,  sprinkling  has  become  common,  and 
even  quite  universal ;  though  Calvin  speaks  of 
the  different  forms  of  baptism  in  a  way  which 
seems  to  imply  that  immersion  was  by  no  means 
obsolete.  So  that  Dr.  Schaff  puts  the  date  quite 
early  enough,  we  think,  when  he  says  that  "  not 
till  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  did  sprink- 
ling become  the  rule  and  immersion  the  excep- 
tion." It  is  to  be  remarked  also  that  this 
change  occurred  only  in  the  AYestern  or  Latin 
church.  In  the  Greek  church  immersion  has 
remained  the  rule  to  the  present  day.* 

«-Prof.  L.  L.  Paine,  D.D.,  Christian  Mirror,  Aug.  3d,  1875. 


XVI. 

AS   PERVEllTED   INTO   A   SAVING   ORDINANCE. 

APTISM  supposeth  regeneration  sure 
in  itself  first.  Sacraments  are  never 
administered  to  begin  or  to  work 
grace.  Read  all  the  Acts,  still  it  is 
said  :  They  believed  and  were  baptized.*  And 
in  the  first  tivo  centuries  no  one  was  baptized, 
except,  being  instructed  in  the  faith,  and  ac- 
quainted with  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  he  was  able 
to  profess  himself  a  believer.'^  But  the  original 
simplicity  of  the  office  of  baptism  had,  in  the 
thiixl  century,  undergone  some  corruption.  The 
symbol  had  been  gradually  exalted  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  thing  signified ;  and  the  spirit  of 
the  ceremony  was  beginning  to  be  lost  in  the 
form.  Hence  a  belief  was  gaining  ground  among 
the  converts,  and  was  inculcated  among  the 
heathen,  that  the  act  of  baptism  gave  remission 

*  Dr.  Goodwin's  Works,  Vol.  I.,  Part  I.,  p.  200. 
t  Salmasius  and  Suicerus. 

72 


AS  PERVERTED  INTO  A  SAYING  ORDINANCE.  73 

of  all  sins  committed  previously.*  This  was 
one  of  the  first  departures  of  the  Church  from 
the  sacred  truths  of  the  gospel,  and  to  this  vital 
error  may  be  traced  much  of  that  ignorance  of 
spiritual  things,  and  that  intellectual  gloom 
which  covered  the  church  in  the  dark  ages  of 
papal  supremacy.!  This  opinion  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  baptism  arose  from  a  wrong  under- 
standing of  our  Lord's  words :  Except  a  man  be 
born  of  water,  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. J  Thus  in  the  old 
ecclesiastical  writers  we  find  many  extravagant 
and  unscriptural  assertions  respecting  the  effect 
of  baptism,§  e.  g.,  that  although  a  man  should 
be  foul  with  every  human  vice,  the  blackest  that 
can  be  named,  yet  should  he  fall  into  the  bap- 
tismal pool,  he  ascends  from  the  divine  waters 
purer  than  the  beams  of  noon.||  That  no  per- 
son comes  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  by 
the  sacrament  of  baptism. Tf  And  Cyril  of  Alex- 

«  Waddington,  Hist.  Church,  Ch.  II.  p.  53. 

t  Rev.  William  Phillips,  M.  E.  in  Campbellism  Exposed, 
p.  18. 

t  Suicerus  from  Pedob.  Exam.  Vol.  ii.,  p.  129. 

§  Knapp's  Clin.  Theol.,  p.  488. 

II  Chrysostom  (398),  from  Isaac  Taylor's  Anc.  Chr'ty,  Vol.  I. 
p.  236. 

^  Ambrose,'A.  D.,  390. 


74  CHKISTIAN   BAPTIS]\I 

anclria  Avent  so  far  as  to  say  tliat  the  water  be- 
came changed,  by  the  divine  power  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  into  an  entirely  different  element.  In 
fact  among  the  old  Catholic  fathers  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  there  always  prevailed  very  high 
ideas  respecting  the  necessity  and  advantages  of 
baptism.  And  there  are  not  wanting  incautious 
expressions  on  this  subject  even,  among  some 
Protestant  theologians,* — for  instance,  that  with 
the  water  of  baptism  the  grace  of  regeneration, 
the  seed  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  principle  of  a 
higher  existence,  is  committed  to  the  soul ;  that 
it  grows  with  us  as  an  innate  impression  of  our 
being.  And  as  long  as  the  believer  trusts  to 
his  baptism  -as  the  source  of  spiritual  life  all  is 
well.f  That  by  baptism,  we  who  Avere  by  na- 
ture children  of  wrath,  are  made  the  children  of 
God.  And  this  regeneration  is  more  than 
barely  being  admitted  into  the  church.  By 
water,  then,  as  a  means,  the  water  of  baptism, 
we  are  regenerated,  or  born  again.  And  if 
infants  are  guilty  of  original  sin,  in  the  ordinary 
way,  they  cannot  be  saved,  unless  this  be  icashed 
away  hy  baptism.X     That   baptism   wrests  the 

*  Kuapp,  Theol.  as  above. 

t  Rev.  Wm.  Harness,  of  St.  Pancrass  Chapel,  London,  on 
Bap.  Reg.,  pp.  135-138. 

X  John  Wesley,  founder  of  Methodism.  Preservative,  p. 
14G.  Pub.  by  Am.  Gen.  Conference. 


AS  PERVERTED  INTO  A  SAVING  ORDIXAXCE.    75 

keys  of  the  heart  out  of  the  hands  of  the  strong 
man  armed,  that  the  possession  may  be  surren- 
dered to  Him  whose  right  it  is."^ 

Now  these  assertions  clearly  make  baptism  a 
saving  ordinance;  and  I  know  not  that  any 
Papist  ever  used  stronger  language  in  pointing 
out  its  importance.f  But  a  more  fatal  mis- 
take there  cannot  be  than  to  attribute  to  baptism 
that  change  of  which  it  is  only  the  appointed 
sign  in  the  Christian  church.  It  is  lamentable 
beyond  expression,  that  professed  Protestants 
should  require  to  be  combated  with  the  same 
weapons  precisely  as  those  employed  against  the 
worst  errors  of  Romanism.  But  so  it  must  be, 
while  the  pestilence  of  Roman  heresy  lurks 
within  the  precincts  of  a  Reformed  church. 
As  the  outward  sign  of  inward  cleansing  by  the 
grace  and  Spirit  of  Christ,  baptism  is  a  most 
significant  and  instructive  ordinance ;  but  those 
who  would  confound,  or  even  identify  it  with 
the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  have  quitted 
the  doctrine  of  the  Apostle,  and  substituted  in 
its  place  a  mere  human  invention.  It  is  one 
thing  to  affirm  that  Christ  has  enjoined  baptism 

*  Matthew  Henry,  Treatise  on  Bap.,  pp.  12,  &c. 
t  Rev.  W.  Phillips,  as  above,  p.  19. 


76  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM 

as  an  initiatory  rite  of  His  kingdom  ;  it  is  quite 
another  thing,  and  an  error  of  the  most  formida- 
ble dimensions,  to  assert  that  all  baptized  per- 
sons are  born  of  the  Spirit.* 

«•  Dr.  J.  Morrison,  Horn,  for  the  Times,  pp.  265,  342,  343. 


XVII. 

AS  TJXSCEIPTURALLY  APPLIED   TO   INFANTS. 

CCORDIXG  to  its  true,  original 
design  baptism  can  be  given  only  to 
adults,  who  are  capable  of  true  know- 
ledge, repentance  and  faith.*  It  is  not 
to  be  received  then  any  more  than  faith  by  right 
of  inheritance. t  Hence  Scripture  knows  nothing 
of  the  baptism  of  infants.  J  It  is  totally  o^Dposed 
to  the  spirit  of  the  apostolic  age,  and  to  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  ISTew  Testament.§ 
The  passages  from  Scripture  cited  in  favor  of 
infant  baptism  as  a  usage  of  the  i)rimitive 
Church,  are  doubtful  and  prove  nothing.  ||  There 
is  absolutely  not  a  single  trace  of  it  to  be  found 
in  the  New  Testament.  There  are  passages  that 
may  be  reconciled  with  it,  if  the  practice  can 
only  be  proved  to  have  existed  ;  but  there  is  not 

*  Prof.  Hahn's  TheoL,  p.  556. 

t  Dr.  Pressense,  Apos.  Era,  p.  376. 

X  Dr.  Hanna. 

\  Prof.  Lange,  Inf.  Bap.,  p.  101. 

II  Hagenbach's  His.  Doct.,  pp.  190-193. 

77 


78  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

one  word  which  asserts  its  existence."*  Among 
all  the  persons  that  are  recorded  as  baptized  by 
the  apostles,  there  is  no  express  mention  of  any 
infants. t  Lydia's  household,  I  know,  has  been 
adduced  in  proof  of  the  apostolic  authority  of 
infant  baptism ;  but  there  is  no  proof  here  that 
any  except  adults  w^ere  baptized. |  Baptism 
ensued  in  this  case,  without  doubt,  merely  upon 
profession  of  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  But 
for  that  very  reason  it  is  highly  improbable  that 
her  house  should  be  understood  as  including 
infant  children. §  We  cannot,  indeed,  prove 
that  the  apostles  ordained  infant  baptism  from 
those  places  where  the  baptism  of  a  whole  family 
is  mentioned.il  In  none  of  these  instances  has 
it  been  proved  that  there  were  little  children 
among  them.^f  And  we  do  freely  confess  there 
is  neither  express  precept  nor  precedent  in  the 
New  Testament  for  the  baptism  of  infants.** 

How  unwary,  too,  are   many  excellent  men, 
in  contending  for  infant  baptism  on  the  ground 

*  North  Brit.  Review  (Presb.),  Aug.  1852. 

t  Dr.  Wall,  His.  Inf.  Bap.  Intro.,  pp.  1,  55. 

X  Dr.  De   Wette,  Com.  on  Acts  xvi.  15. 

§  Olshausen,  Com.  on  Acts  xvi.  14,  15. 

II  Neander's  Planting  and  Training,  p.  162,  N.  Y.  Ed. 

%  Kitto's  Bib.  Ency.,  Art.  Bap. 

«-*  Fuller,  Infant's  Advoc,  pp.  71,  150. 


AS  UNSCRIPTURALLY  APPLIED  TO  INFANTS.  79 

of  the  Jewish  analogy  of  circumcision.  Number- 
less difficulties  present  themselves  in  our  way  as 
soon  as  we  begin  to  argue  in  such  a  manner  as 
this.  The  Covenant  of  Circumcision  furnishes 
no  ground  for  infant  baptism.*  Indeed — what 
is  the  Covenant  ?  AVhat  meaning  and  force  has 
it  ?  Here  we  have  never  agreed,  and  do  not 
now.  The  Baptists  have  pushed  us  for  an 
answer — v;q  have  given  them  many  answers, — 
but  never  any  single  answer  in  which  we  could 
agree  among  oursel  ves.f  In  fact,  the  Xew  Testa- 
ment saints  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the 
Abrahamic  covenant  than  the  Old  Testament 
believers  who  lived  prior  to  Abraham.  J  And  the 
sacraments  of  the  Neic  Covenant  are  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  seal  nothing  but  what  is  spiritual,  nor 
to  be  of  any  advantage,  except  in  regard  to  those 
who  really  believe  in  Jesus  Christ. §  This  is 
the  great  reason  Avhy  we  cannot  believe  that 
baptism  was  administered  in  the  apostolic  age  to 
little  ^children. II  Thus,  all  attempts  to  make 
out   infant  baptism  from  the   New   Testament 

*  Prof.    Moses  Stuart,  Com.  on  O.  T.,  chap.   22,  and   Lee. 
on  Gal. 
f  Bushnell's  Views  of  Christian  Nurture,  pp.  56-61. 
X  Dr.  E.  Williams  on  Morrice'  Social  Religion,  pp.  312-317. 

I  Vitringa  in  Pedob.  Exam.,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  268. 

II  Dr.  Pressense,  as  above. 


80  CHRISTIAN     BAPTISM. 

fail.*  No  instance  of  it  is  recorded  there ;  no 
allusion  is  made  to  its  effects ;  no  directions  are 
given  for  its  administration  ;t  it  is  not  brought 
down  as  a  substitute  for  circumcision. J  And 
from  the  action  of  Christ's  blessing  infants,  to 
infer  they  are  to  be  baptized,  proves  nothing  so 
much,  as  that  there  is  a  want  of  better  argu- 
ments. §  Indeed  all  traces  of  infant  baptism 
which  one  will  find  in  the  New  Testament  mud 
first  he  put  into  it.\\  And,  where  the  Scripture 
is  silent,  who  shall  speak  ?Tf 

But,  neither  in  the  Scriptures,  nor  during  the 
first  hundred  and  fifty  years  (at  least),  is  a  sure 
example  of  infant  baptism  to  be  found  ;  and  we 
must  conclude  that  the  numerous  opposers  of  it 
cannot  be  contradicted  on  gospel  ground.**  For 
the  early  and  continued  opposition  to  it  would 
have  been  inexplicable,  if  it  had  been  an  un- 
doubted apostolic  institution. ft  Though  some, 
indeed,  have  argued  that  in  the  silence  of  Scrip- 

*  Prof.  Lange,  as  above. 

t  Dr.  Jacobi,  Church  of  Eng.  Eccle.  Pol.,  pp.  270,  271. 

X  H.  W.  Beecher. 

g  Bishop  Taylor,  Liberty  of  Prophecy,  p.  230. 

II  Schleiermacher. 

^  Ambrose. 

*-*  Prof.  Hahn,  Theol.,  p.  556. 

ft  Meyer's  Com.  on  Acts,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  235. 


AS  UNSCRIPTURALLY  APPLIED  TO  INFANTS.  81 

ture,  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  a  custom  whose 
existence  is  seen  in  the  second  century  must  have 
descended  from  the  apostles ;  but  the  presump- 
tion is  wholly  the  other  way.  History  confirms 
the  inference  drawn  from  the  sacred  volume."^ 
There  is,  I  think,  no  trace  of  it  until  the  last 
part  of  the  second  century,  when  a  passage  is 
found  in  Irenseus,  which  may  possibly — and 
only  possibly — ^^refer  to  it.  Xor  is  it  anywhere 
distinctly  mentioned  before  the  time  of  Tertullian 
(204),  who,  w^hile  he  testifies  to  the  practice,  was 
himself  rather  opposed  to  it.f  A  proof  that  the 
practice  had  not  as  yet  come  to  be  regarded  as 
an  Apostolical  institution,  for  otherwise  he 
would  hardly  have  ventured  to  express  himself 
so  strongly  against  it.{  As  an  established  order 
of  the  Church,  therefore,  it  belongs  to  the  third 
century,  when  its  use,  and  the  mode  of  its  admi- 
nistration, and  the  whole  theory  of  it  as  a 
Christian  ceremony,  were  necessarily  moulded 
by  the  baptismal  theology  of  tlie  time.§  For  an 
opinion  prevailed  that  no  one  could  be  saved 
without  being  baptized  ;!|  which  rule,  they  said, 

*  N.  Brit.  Eeview,  as  above. 

t  Dr.  Jacobi,  as  above. 

X  Anonymous. 

^  Dr.  Jacobi,  as  above. 

II  Salmasius,  Epis.  Jus.  Pac. 

6 


82  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM 

as  it  holds  to  all,  so  we  think  it  more  especially 
to  be  observed  in  reference  to  infants,  to  whom 
our  help  and  the  Divine  mercy  is  rather  to  be 
granted  ;  because,  by  their  weeping  and  wailing 
at  their  first  entrance  into  the  world,  they  do 
intimate  nothing  so  much  as  that  they  implore 
compassion.*  It  was,  therefore,  customary  in 
the  ancient  Church,  if  infants  were  greatly 
afflicted,  and  in  danger  of  death,  or  if  parents 
were  affected  with  a  singular  concern  about  the 
salvation  of  their  children  to  present  their 
infants,  or  children,  in  their  minority,  to  the 
bishop  to  be  baptized. f  But  nothing  can  be 
affirmed  with  certainty,  concerning  the  custom 
of  the  Church  before  Tertullian,  seeing^  there  is 
not  anywhere,  in  more  ancient  writers,  that  I 
know  of,  undoubted  mention  of  infant  baptism, 
though  there  were  persons  in  his  age  who 
desired  their  infants  might  be  baptized,  espe- 
cially when  they  were  afraid  of  their  dying 
without  baptism ;  which  opinion  Tertullian 
opposed,  and  by  so  doing  intimates  that  pedo- 
baptism  began  to  prevail. J 

In  \\\.Q  fourth  century  its  validity  was  generally 

*  Cyprian,  A.  D.,  253. 

t  Vitringa,  Observ.  Sac,  Vol.  i.,  B.  2,  ch.  iv.,  sec.  9. 

%  Venema,  Eccle.  His.,  Vol.  iii.,  ch.  ii.,  sees.  108,  109. 


AS  UNSCRTPTUEALLY  APPLIED  TO  INFANTS.  83 

acknowledged,  although  the  Church  fathers 
often  found  it  necessary  to  icarn  against  the 
delay  of  baptism.*  The  practice  was  neither 
uniformly  adopted,  nor  ahvays  or  everywhere 
observed.  This  is  evident  from  numerous  in- 
stances of  persons  living  in  or  about  the  fourth 
century,  who  w^ere  not  baptized  till  after  they 
had  reached  the  age  of  manhood.  Such  was  the 
case  with  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Augustine,  Chry- 
sostom,  Basil,  Gregory ;  and  among  the  Empe- 
rors, wath  Constantine,  Constantius — sons  of 
Constantino  the  Great, — Valentian,  Gratian, 
Theodoras,  and  w^ith  innumerable  other  per- 
sons, f  Augustine  pointed  out  the  removal  of 
original  sin,  and  the  sins  of  the  children  as  its 
definite  object ;  and  through  his  representations 
was  its  universal  diffusion  promoted. J 

In  the  fifth  and  folloioing  ages  it  was  generally 
received. §  The  baptism  of  infants  is  therefore 
named  a  tradition. ||  And  this  practice  which 
Protestants  have  retained  from  the  Romish 
church,  without  a  due  consideration  of  it,  as 
well  as  many  other  things  which  they  still  re- 

*  Bretsclineider,  Theol.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  469. 
t  Koraes,  a  Greek  Scholar. 
X  Bretschneider,  as  above. 

I  Curcellus,  Instit.  Rel.  Christ.,  L.  I.,  e.  12. 

II  Dr.  Field,  on  the  Church,  p.  375. 


84  CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM 

tain,  renders  their  baptism  very  defective.  It 
corrupts  both  the  institution  and  ancient  usage 
of  it,  and  the  relation  it  ought  to  have  to  faith, 
repentance  and  regeneration.*  And,  it  must  be 
confessed  that  without  the  authority  of  the 
Church,  the  baptism  of  children  could  not  be 
adequately  defended.  For  there  is  no  example 
in  its  favor  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures;  which 
appear,  besides  water,  to  demand  faith  also. 
Hence,  it  appears  to  me,  that  those  who  reject 
Church  authority,  cannot  sustain  the  attacks 
of  the  Anabaptists. t  For  wise  men  do  easily 
observe  that  the  Anabaptists  can,  by  the  same 
probability  of  Scripture,  enforce  a  necessity  of 
communicating  infants  (i.  e.  administering  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  them)  upon  us,  as  we  do  of 
baptizing  infants  upon  them,  if  we  speak  of 
immediate  divine  institution. J  They  say  it 
is  evident  that  belief  or  faith  must  precede 
baptism ;  but  they  add,  infants  are  not  capable 
of  believing;  therefore,  neither  are  they  capable 
of  being  baptized.  They  boast  that  the  Scrip- 
ture is  evidently  for  Baptist  practice — that 
other  Protestants  hold  traditional  doctrines,  like 

*  M.  De  la  Rogue, 
t  Leibnitz,  (1716). 
X  Jeremy  Taylor. 


AS  UKSCRIPTURALLY  APPLIED  TO  INFANTS.  85 

the  Catholics.*  While  Catholics  say — We  Ro- 
manists have  little  to  fear  from  you  :  the  contro- 
versy is  not  between  us  and  you;  it  is  with 
the  Baptists.  There  are  but  two  parties  in  the 
contest,  ourselves  and  the  Baptists. f 

Would  the  Protestant  Church  fulfil  and  at- 
tain to  its  final  destiny,  the  baptism  of  new-born 
children  must  of  necessity  be  abolished.  It 
cannot  from  any  point  of  view  be  justified  by 
the  Holy  Scriptures. J 

AS   CATHOLICS   VIEW    IT. 

Q.  Can  Protestants  prove  to  Baptists  that  the 
baptism  of  infants  is  good  and  useful  ? 

Ans.  No,  they  cannot ;  because,  according  to 
Protestant  principles^  such  baptism  is  useless. 

Q.  Why  do  you  say  this  ? 

Ans,  One  of  the  Protestant  principles  is,  that 
no  human  being  can  be  justified  except  by  an 
act  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ ;  but  no  infant  is 
capable  of  making  this  act  of  faith ;  therefore, 
upon  Protestant  principles,  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants is  useless. 

Q.  Can  you  draw  the  same  consequences  from 
any  other  principle  ? 

*  Roman  Cath.  Catechism. 

t  Bishop  Baily  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  to  Pedob.  Minister. 

X  Prof.  Lange,  Hist.  Prot.,  p.  31-45. 


86  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

Ans.  Yes;  their  first  principle  is,  that 
nothing  is  to  be  practiced,  which  is  not  author- 
ized by  Scriptural  example;  but  it  does  not 
a23pear  from  Scripture  that  even  one  infant  was 
ever  baptized;  therefore,  Protestants  should 
reject,  on  their  own  principles,  infant  baptism 
as  an  unscriptural  usage. 

Q.  How  do  Baptists  treat  other  Protestants  ? 

Ans.  They  boast  that  the  Scripture  is  evi- 
dently for  Baptist  practice — that  other  Protes- 
tants hold  traditional  doctrines,  like  the  Catho- 
lics. They  quote  Matt.  chap,  xxviii.,  "  Go 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them,''  from  which 
they  say,  it  is  clear  that  teaching  should  go 
before  baptism;  hence,  they  conclude,  that  as 
infants  cannot  be  taught,  so  neither  should  they 
be  baptized  until  they  are  capable  of  teaching 
or  instruction. 

Q.  "What  use  do  they  make  of  Mark,  chap, 
xvi. — "  He  who  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
be  saved  ?'' 

A71S.  They  say  it  is  evident  that  belief  or 
faith  must  precede  baptism ;  but,  they  add, 
children  or  infants  are  not  capable  of  believing ; 
therefore,  neither  are  they  capable  of  being  bap- 
tized. 

Q,  What  can  Protestants  reply  to  this  Baptist 
reasoning  ? 


AS  UNSCRIPTURALLY  APPLIED  TO  INFANTS.  87 

Alls.  They  may  give  these  passages  another 
meaning,  but  they  can  never  prove  that  their 
interpretation  is  better  than  that  of  the  Baptists, 
because  they  themselves  give  every  one  a  right 
to  interpret  Scripture. 

Q»  What  inference  do  you  draw  from  this  ? 

Alls.  That  every  Protestant  has  much  reason 
to  doubt  whether  he  be  baptized. 

Q.  How  do  Catholics  prove  that  infants 
ought  to  be  baptized  ? 

Ans.  Not  from  Scripture  alone,  which  is  not 
clear  on  this  subject,  but  from  the  Scripture, 
illustrated  by  the  constant  tradition  of  the 
church,  which,  in  every  age,  administered  bap- 
tism to  infants,  and  consequently  the  practice 
must  have  been  derived  from  the  apostles. 

Q.  Can  Protestants  use  this  triumphant  argu- 
ment of  tradition  against  the  Baptists  ? 

Alls.  No;  they  have  no  right  to  use  it  in  this 
matter  where  it  would  serve  them,  since  they 
reject  it  in  every  question  where  it  is  opposed  to 
their  novel  and  lately  invented  doctrines.* 

*-  An  Extract  from  A  Doctrinal  Catechism :  by  Rev.  Ste- 
phen Keenan.  Approved  by  John  Hughes,  D.  D.,  Roman 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  New  York,  1851. 


xyiii. 

AS  SUBSTITUTED  BY  POURING  AND  SPRINKLING. 

ITH  infant  baptism,  still  another  change 
in  the  outward  form  of  baptism,  was 
introduced — that  of  sprinkling  with 
water,  instead  of  the  former  practice  of 
immersion.*  For  it  is  without  controversy  that 
baptism  in  the  primitive  church  Avas  adminis- 
tered by  immersion  into  water,  and  not  by  sprink- 
ling. So  too,  the  essential  act  of  baptizing  in 
the  second  century ,  consi^ed,  not  in  sprinkling, 
but  in  immersion  into  water,  in  the  name  of  each 
person  in  the  Trinity.  Concerning  immersion, 
the  words  and  phrases  that  are  used  sufficiently 
testify ;  and  that  it  was  performed  in  a  river, 
pool  or  fountain.  To  the  essential  rite  of  bap- 
tism in  the  third  century,  pertained  immersion, 
and  not  aspersion,  excej^t  in  cases  of  necessity, 
and  it  was  accounted  a  half-perfect  baptism. f 
And  controversy  arose  concerning  it,  so  unheard 

«•  FritPch,  Bib.  Theol.,  Vol.  3,  p.  507. 
f  Venema,  His.  Eccle.,  Sec.  i. ;  ii. ;   iii. 

88 


SUBSTITUTED  BY  POURING  AND  SPRINKLING.  89 

of  was  it  at  that  time  to  baptize  by  simple  affu- 
sion.* Immersion  in  ihQ  fourth  century,  was  one 
of  those  acts  that  were  considered  as  essential  to 
baptism  ;  nevertheless  aspersion  was  used  in  the 
last  moments  of  life  on  such  as  were  clinics^f — 
which  Rufinus  rightly  translates  ijerfusuvi — 
poured  about,  for  those  who  are  sick,  were  baptized 
in  bed.  Therefore,  baptism  of  this  sort  was  not 
customary,  and  was  esteemed  imperfect,  as  be- 
ing what  appeared  to  be  received  by  men  labor- 
ing under  delirium,  not  willingly,  but  from  fear 
of  death.  In  addition,  since  baptism  properly 
signifies  immersion,  a  pouring  of  this  sort  could 
hardly  be  called  baptism,  therefore.  Clinics  were 
forbidden  to  be  promoted  to  the  rank  of  the 
ministry,  by  the  twelfth  canon  of  the  Council 
of  Neo-Csesarea.  | 

Cyprian  first  defended  baptism  by  sprinkling, 
when  necessity  called  for  it,  but  cautiously  and 
with  much  limitation  § — saying  to  Magnus, 
"  You  ask,  dear  son,  what  I  think  of  those,  who, 
in  sickness  receive  the  sacred  ordinance ;  whether, 
since  they  are  not  washed  (loti)  in  the  saving  water, 
but  have  it  poured  on  them,  (perfusi)  they  are  to 

*  Knapp's  Theo.,  p.  487. 

f  Venema,  as  above. 

X  Yalesius,  from  R.  Fuller  on  Bap.,  p.  81. 

§  Knapp,  as  above. 


90  CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM 

be  esteemed  right  Christians.  In  the  saving  sac- 
raments, when  necessity  obliges,  and  God  grants 
His  indulgence,  abridgements  of  divine  things, 
(divina  compendia),  will  confer  the  whole  on  be- 
lievers."* By  degrees,  however,  this  mode  of 
baptism  became  more  customary,  probably  be- 
cause it  was  found  more  convenient ;  especially 
was  this  the  case  after  the  seventh  century,  and  in 
the  Western  Church,  but  it  did  not  become  uni- 
versal (even  there)  until  the  commencement  of 
the  fourteenth  centurg.'\' 

The  fii'st  law  for  sprinkling  was  obtained  in  the 
following  manner :  Pope  Stephen  II.  being  dri- 
ven from  Rome  by  Astolphus,  King  of  Lombards, 
in  753,  fled  to  Pepin,  who  a  short  time  before 
had  usurped  the  crown  of  France.  While  he  re- 
mained there,  the  monks  of  Cressy,  in  Brittany, 
consulted  him,  whether,  in  case  of  necessity,  bap- 
tism performed  by  pouring  water  on  the  head  of 
the  infant  would  be  lawful.  Stephen  replied  that 
it  would.  But  though  the  truth  of  this  fact 
should  be  allowed^  which,  however,  some  Cath- 
olics deny,  yet  pouring  or  sprinkling  was  admit- 
ted only  in  cases  of  necessity.  It  was  not  till  the 
year  1311  that  the  Legislature,  in  a  Council  held 


*  Cyprian. 

■j-  Knapp,  as  above. 


SUBSTITUTED  BY  POURING  AXD  SPRINKLING.  91 

at  Ravenna,  declared  immersion  or  sprinkling  to 
be  indiflPerent.*  France  seems  to  have  been  the 
first  country  where  baptism  by  affusion  was  used 
ordinarily  to  persons  in  health,  and  in  the  public 
way  of  administering  it.f  In  this  country  (Scot- 
land), however,  sprinkling  was  never  practiced  in 
ordinary  cases  till  after  the  Reformation  ;  and  in 
England,  even  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  im- 
mersion was  commonly  observed.  But  during 
the  persecution  of  Mary,  many  persons,  most  of 
whom  were  Scotchmen,  fled  from  England  to  Ge- 
neva, and  there  greedily  imbibed  the  opinions  of 
that  Church.  In  1556  a  book  was  published  at 
that  place,  containing  the  form  of  prayers  and 
ministrations  of  sacraments,  approved  by  the  fa- 
mous and  godly  man,  John  Calvin,  in  which  the 
administrator  is  enjoined  to  take  water  in  his  hand 
and  lay  it  on  the  child's  forehead.  These  Scot- 
tish exiles  who  had  renounced  the  authority  of  the 
Pope,  implicitly  acknowledged  the  authority  of 
Calvin  ;  and  returning  to  their  own  country  with 
John  Knox  at  their  head,  in  1559,  established 
sprinkling  in  Scotland.  From  Scotland  this  prac- 
tice made  its  way  into  England  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  but  was  not  authorized  by  the  estab- 

*  Edinburgh  Ency.,  Ed.  by  Sir  David  Brewster.   Art.  Bap. 
t  Dr.  Wall,  His.  Inf.  Bap.,  Part  2,  ch.  9. 


92  CHRISTIAN  BAPTIS^r 

lished  Church.*  It  being  allowed  to  weak  chil- 
dren, in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  be  bap- 
tised by  aspersion,  many  fond  ladies  and  gentle- 
women ^rs^,  and  then  by  degrees  the  common  peo- 
ple, would  obtain  the  favor  of  the  Priest  to  have 
their  children  pass  for  weakly  children,  too  tender 
to  endure  dipping  in  the  water.  As  for  sprink- 
ling properly  so  called,  it  was,  at  1645,  just  then 
beginning,  and  used  by  very  few.  It  must  have 
begun  in  the  disorderly  times  of  forty-one  (1641), 
They — the  Assembly  of  Divines  in  Westminster 
— reformed  the  font  into  a  basin.  This  learned 
Assembly  could  not  remember  that  fonts  to  bap- 
tize in  had  always  been  used  by  the  primitive 
churches,  long  before  the  beginning  of  Popery, 
and  ever  since  churches  were  built ;  but  that 
sprinkling  for  the  purpose  of  baptizing  was  really 
introduced  (in  France  first,  and  then  in  other  po- 
pish countries),  in  times  of  Popery  ;  and  that  ac- 
cordingly, all  those  countries  in  which  the 
usurped  power  of  the  Pope  is,  or  has  formerly  been 
owned,  have  left  off  dipping  of  children  in  the 
font,  but  that  all  other  countries  in  the  world, 
which  have  never  regarded  his  authority,  do  still 
use  it.  And  thouo^h  tlie  Eno^lish  received  not 
this  custom  till  after  the  decay  of  Popery,  yet  they 
have  since  received  it  from  such  neighbor  nations 
*  Edin.  Ency.  as  above. 


SUBSTITUTED  BY  POURIXG  AlHD  SPRINKLIXG.  93 

as  had  begun  it  in  the  time  of  the  Pope^s  power. 
For  the  way  that  is  now  ordinarily  used,  we  can- 
not deny  to  have  been  a  novelty,  brought  into  this 
church  (English)  by  those  that  learned  it  in  Ger- 
many or  at  Geneva.  And  they  were  not  content- 
ed to  follow  the  example  of  pouring  a  quantity  of 
water,  which  had  there  been  introduced  instead  of 
immersion,  but  improved  it,  if  I  may  so  abuse 
that  word,  from  pouring  to  sprinkling,  that  it 
might  have  as  little  resemblance  to  the  ancient  way 
of  baptizing  as  possible.*  Hence  not  only  the 
Catholic  Church,  but  also  the pretejided  reformed 
churches,  have  altered  this  primitive  custom,  and 
now  allow  of  baptism  by  pouring  or  sprinkling 
water  on  the  person  baptized.  Nay,  many  of  their 
ministers  do  it  nowadays  by  fillipping  a  wet  finger 
and  thumb  over  a  child's  head,  or  shaking  a  wet 
fino^er  or  two  over  a  child  ;  which  is  hard  enoug-h 
to  call  baptism  in  any  sense. f  The  Baptists,  in 
fact,  are  the  only  denomination  of  Christians  ^Yho 
have  not  symbolized  with  the  Church  of  Rome,{ 
and,  with  the  two  exceptions  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Milan,  and  the  sect  of  the  Baptists,  a  few  drops  of 
water  are  now  the  "Western  substitute. § 

*  Dr.  Wall,  as  above. 

t  Dr.  E.  Wetham,  Eom.  Cath.,  Annot.  on  Matt.  iii.  6, 

X  Newton. 

§  Dean  Stanley,  Elist.  Eastern  Church,  p.  117. 


94  CHEISTIAN    BAPTISM 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  certainly  to  be 
lamented  that  Luther  was  not  able  to  accomplish 
his  wish  with  regard  to  the  introduction  of  im- 
mersion in  baptism,  as  he  had  done  in  the  re- 
storation of  the  wine  in  the  Eucharist.*  For  if 
we  say — The  Bible  alone  is  the  religion  of  Pro- 
testantsf — the  Catholics  reply — Show  us,  my 
Lords,  the  validity  of  your  baptism,  '  by  Scrip- 
ture alone/  Jesus  Christ  there  ordains  that  it 
shall  be  conferred,  not  by  pouring  water  on  the 
heads  of  believers,  but  by  believers  being  plunged 
into  water.  The  word  baptizo  employed  by 
the  Evangelists,  strictly  conveys  this  signification, 
as  the  learned  are  agreed ;  and  at  the  head  of 
them  Casaubon,  of  all  the  Calvinists,  the  best 
versed  in  the  Greek  language.  Now  baptism 
by  immersion  has  ceased  for  many  ages,  and 
you  yourselves  as  well  as  we,  have  only  received 
it  by  affusion.  It  would,  therefore,  be  all  over 
with  your  baptism,  unless  you  established  it  by 
tradition  and  the  practice  of  the  Church.  This 
being  settled,  I  ask  you  from  whom  have  you 
received  baptism  ?  Is  it  not  from  the  Church 
of  Rome  ?  And  what  do  you  think  of  her  ?  Do 
you  not  consider  her  as  heretical,  and  even  idola- 

*  Drs.  Storr  and  Flatt's  Theol.,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  291. 
t  Chillingworth. 


SUBSTITUTED  BY  POURING  AND  SPEINKLING.  95 

trous  ?  You  cannot,  then,  according  to  the 
terms  of  Scripture,  prove  the  validity  of  your 
baptism  ;  and  to  produce  a  plea  for  it,  you  are 
obliged  to  seek  it  with  Pope  Stephen,  and  the 
councils  of  Aries  and  Nice,  and  in  Apostolic 
tradition.* 

*  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Trevern  (Rom.  Cath.),  in  La  Discussion 
Amicale  to  Protestant  Clergy. 


XIX. 

AS   PRESERVED   BY   THE   BAPTISTS. 

HE  true  origin  of  that  sect  which 
acquired  the  name  Anabaptist,  is  hid 
in  the  remote  depths  of  Antiquity,  and 
is  consequently  extremely  difficult  to 
be  ascertained.*  On  this  account,  the  Baptists 
— who  were  formerly  called  Anabaptists — may 
be  considered  the  only  Christian  community 
which  has  stood  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
and  as  a  Christian  Society,  has  preserved  pure 
the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  through  all  ages. 
The  perfectly  correct  external  and  internal  eco- 
nomy of  the  Baptist  denomination  tends  to  con- 
firm the  truth  disputed  by  the  Romish  Church, 
that  the  Reformation,  brought  about  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  was  in  the  highest  degree 
necessary,  and  at  the  same  time  goes  to  refute 
the  erroneous  notion  of  the  Catholics,  that  their 

*  Mosheim's  Ch.  Hist,  (Maclaine's),  Vol.  ii ,  p.  127. 

96 


AS    PRESERVED    BY  THE    BAPTISTS.  97 

commimion  is  the  most  ancient.*  Before  Luther 
and  Calvin,  there  lay  concealed  in  almost  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  many  persons  who  adliered 
tenaciously  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Dutch  Bap- 
tists, f  and  for  thirteen  hundred  years  had  caused 
great  disturbance  in  the  Church. J  And,  if  the 
truth  of  religion  were  to  be  judged  of  by  the 
readiness  and  cheerfulness  which  a  man  of  any 
sect  shows  in  suffering,  then  the  opinions  and 
persuasions  of  no  sect  can  be  truer  or  surer,  than 
those  of  the  anabaptists  ;  since  there  have  been 
none  (1570),  for  these  twelve  hundred  years  past, 
that  have  been  more  grievously  punished. §  In 
Ponton,  Cologne,  Germany,  Swederland,  etc., 
many  thousands  of  this  sect,  who  defiled  their 
first  baptism  by  a  second,  were  baptized  the 
third  time  in  their  own  blood. ||  And  in  almost 
all  the  countries  of  Europe,  an  tcnspeaJcable 
number  of  Baptists  preferred  death  in^its  w^orst 

*  Dr.  Ypeij,  Prof.  Theol.,  Groningen,  and  Dr.  J.  J.  Der- 
mont,  chaplain  to  King  of  Netherlands  in  Hist.  Dutch  Bap- 
tists. 

f.Mosheim,  Ch.  Hist.    

X  Zwingle,  the  Swiss  Reformer,  from  Orchard's  Hist.,  p.  17. 

§  Cardinal  Hossius,  Chairman  at  Council  of  Trent,  from 
Orchard's  Hist.  Baptists,  p.  364. 

II  De  Featly — The  same  who,  in  16-44,  entreated  the  House 
of  Lords,  that  Milton  might  be  cut  off,  "  as  a  pestilent  Ana- 
baptist." 
7 


98  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

forms  to  a  retraction  of  their  sentiments.*  This 
sect  had  the  honor  both  of  leading  the  way,  and 
bringing  up  the  rear,  of  all  the  martyrs  who 
were  burnt  alive  in  England. f  And  so  nu- 
merous were  they,  and  so  rigorously  persecuted, 
that  the  records  show  that  over  seventy  thousand 
of  them  were,  in  King  Henry^s  time,  punished 
by  fines,  by  imprisonment,  by  banishment,  or 
by  burning.J  The  Baptists  that  were  burnt  in 
different  parts  of  the  Kingdom,  w^ent  to  death 
intrepidly  and  without  any  fear.§ 

They  suffered  death,  not  on  account  of  their 
being  considered  rebellious  subjects,  but  merely 
because  they  were  judged  to  be  incurable  heretics  ; 
for,  in  this  century  (the  16th),  the  error  of  limit- 
ing the  administration  of  baptism  to  adult 
persons  only,  and  the  practice  of  rebaptizing 
such  as  had  received  the  sacrament  in  infancy, 
were  looked  upon  as  the  most  flagitious  and 
intolerable  of  heresies. || 

Thus  the  party  was  trodden  under  foot  with 
foul  reproaches  and  most  arrogant  scorn ;  and 

*  Mosheim. 

fFrom  VVestlake'sjGen.  View. 

X  Strype's  History. 

g  Bishop  Latimer,  Lent  Sermons. 

11  Mosheim,  Eccle,  Hist.,  Cent.  16,  Sec.  3,  Part  2,  ch.  iii. 


AS    PRESERVED    BY  THE    BAPTISTS.  99 

its  history  is  written  in  the  blood  of  myriads  of 
the  German  peasantry ;  but  its  principles,  safe 
in  their  immortality,  escaped  with  Roger 
Williams  to  Providence ;  and  his  colony  is  the 
witness  that  naturally  the  paths  of  the  Baptists 
are  paths  of  freedom,  pleasantness  and  peace. 
For  freedom  of  conscience,  unlimited  freedom 
of  mind  was,  from  the  first,  the  trophy  of  the 
Baptists.  * 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,   Roger 
Williams  insisted  in  Massachusetts  upon  allow- 

NoTE.— It  may  be  stated  that  the  Baptists  believe  the 
ordinances  should  be  administered  to  regenerated  believers 
only,  not  exclusively  to  adults,  but  to  children  also,  who  give 
evidence  of  being  born  of  the  Spirit,  a.  And  doubtless  if 
baptism  was  not  rightly  administered  with  reference  to  those 
things  which  belong  to  the  substance  of  it,  it  is  all  one  as  if 
the  person  had  not  been  baptized  ;  and,  therefore,  he  is  to  be 
baptized  and  not  re-baptized,  h.  And  respecting  the  form  of 
baptism  the  impartial  historian  is  compelled  by  exegesis  and 
history  substantially  to  yield  the  point  to  the  Baptists,  as  is 
done  in  fact  by  most  German  scholars,  c.  Hence,  "  If  the 
Baptists  are  historically  right,  and  we  wrong,  let  us  discon- 
tinue our  disputes  with  them  as  to  the  meaning  of  Greek 
verbs,  and  give  due  honor  to  the  original  mode  of  baptism 
both  by  our  preaching  and  practice."(Z. 

Note  (a)  Imperial  Die.  (English). 

(6)  Buddeus,  Theol.  Dog.,  i.,  v.,  c.  1,  g  10. 

(c)  Dr.  P.  Schaflf,  Hist.  Apo.  Ch.  p.  568. 

{d)  Rev.  A.  L.  Park,  in  Christian  Mirror,  June  29th,  1876' 

*  Bancroft's  Hist.  U.  States. 


100  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

ing  entire  freedom  of  conscience,  and  upon  entire 
separation  of  the  Church  and  the  State.  But  he 
was  obliged  to  flee,  and  in  1636  he  formed  in 
Rhode  Island,  a  small  and  new  society,  in  which 
perfect  freedom  in  matters  of  faith  was  allowed, 
and  in  which  the  majority  ruled  in  all  civil 
affairs.  Here,  in  a  little  State,  the  fundamental 
principles  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  liberty 
practically  prevailed,  before  they  were  even 
taught  in  any  of  the  schools  of  philosophy  in 
Europe.  At  that  time  people  predicted  only  a 
short  existence  for  these  democratical  experi- 
ments. But  not  only  have  these  ideas  and  these 
forms  of  government  maintained  themselves 
here,  but,  precisely  from  this  little  State,  have 
they  extended  themselves  throughout  the  United 
States.  They  have  conquered  the  aristocratic 
tendencies  in  Carolina  and  New  York,  the  High 
Church  in  Virginia,  the  theocracy  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  monarchy  in  all  America. 
They  have  given  laws  to  a  continent,  and,  for- 
midable through  their  moral  influence,  they  lie 
at  the  bottom  of  all  the  democratic  movements  which 
are  now  shaking  the  nations  of  Europe."^     Thus 

*  German  Philosopher,  Gerviaus,  Introd.  to  His.,  1 9th  Cen- 
tury, 


AS  PRESERVED  BY  THE  BAPTISTS.  101 

he  began  the  first  civil  government  on  the  earth 
which  gave  equal  liberty  of  conscience.* 

To  conclude  then — The  Baptists  are  a  people 
very  fond  of  religious  liberty,  and  very  unwill- 
ing to  be  brought  under  bondage  of  the  judg- 
ment of  others. t  As  regards  their  form  of  go- 
vernment, they  are,  as  every  one  knows  Inde- 
pendents, who  perform  the  rite  of  baptism,  like 
the  primitive  Christians,  by  immersion.  J  Their 
origin  is  hid  in  the  depths  of  antiquity.§  They 
have  preserved  pure  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel 
through  all  ages.||  They  are  the  only  denomi- 
nation of  Christians  who  have  not  symbolized 
with  the  Church  of  Rome.^f  And  let  it  never 
be  forgotten  of  the  particular  Baptists  of  Eng- 
land that  they  form  the  denomination  of  Fuller, 
and  Carey,  and  Ryland,  and  Hall,  and  Foster ; 
that  they  have  originated  one  among  the  greatest 
of  all  missionary  enterprises ;  that  they  have  en- 
riched the  Christian  literature  of  our  country 
with  authorship   of  the  most  exalted  piety,  as 

«-  Southey. 

t  Baily  in  1639. 

X  Dr.  Bunsen,  On  Signs  of  the  Times. 

§  Mosheim,  as  above. 

II  Hist.  Ref.  Dutch  Ch.,  Ed.  Breda,  1819. 

^  Newton. 


102  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

well  as  of  the  first  talent  and  the  first  eloquence; 
that  they  have  waged  a  very  noble  and  success- 
ful war  with  the  hydra  of  Antinomianism  ;  that, 
perhaps,  there  is  not  a  more  intellectual  com- 
munity of  ministers  in  our  island,  or  who  have 
put  forth,  in  proportion  to  their  number  a 
greater  amount  of  mental  power  and  mental 
activity  in  the  defence  of  our  common  faith  ;  and 
what  is  better  than  all  the  triumphs  of  genius  or 
understanding,  who,  by  their  zeal  and  fidelity, 
and  pastoral  labor  among  the  congregations 
which  they  have  reared,  have  done  more  to  swell 
the  lists  of  genuine  discipleship  in  all  the  walks 
of  private  society,  and  thus  both  to  uphold  and 
to  extend  the  living  Christianity  of  our  nation.* 

*  Dr.  Chalmers,  ia  sermon  on  Rom.  iv.  9-15. 


XX. 

AS     FALSELY   VIEWED — A     PLEA    FOR     INCON- 
SISTENCY. 

"  Happy  is  he  that  condemneth  not  himself  in  that  which 
he  alloweth."   Rom.  xiv.  22. 

"  Men  are  easy  enough  to  consent  to  a  general  rule ;  but 
they  will  not  suffer  their  oivn  case  to  be  concerned  in  it." 

— Bishop  Taylor. 

T  is  said  that  the  lawfuhiess  of  any 
other  baptism  than  by  immersion  will 
be  found  to  lie  in  the  necessity  there 
may  sometimes  be  of  another  manner 
of  administering  of  it.*  That  the  danger  of 
dipping  in  cold  climates,  may  be  a  very  good 
reason  for  changing  the  form  of  baptism  to 
sprinkling.f  That  the  Church  claims  the  right 
to  regulate,  at  her  just  discretion,  whatever  re- 
gards the  manner  of  administering  the  Sacra- 
ments.t  That  the  Holy  Scriptures  speak  only 
of  baptism  by  immersion.     But  the  dogma  of 

«-  Dr.  Towerson  on  Sac.  of  Bap.,  Part  III.,  pp.  58-60. 

t  Bishop  Burnet. 

X  Archb.  Kenrick,  from  Am.  Cyclop.,  Art.  Rom.  Cath. 

103 


104  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

the  Church  is  to  sprinkle,  and  we  should  in  this, 
as  in  everything  else,  follow  the  Church.*  That 
it  is  left  to  latitude^  to  convenience,  to  the  taste, 
fancy,  and  preference  of  all.f  That  it  is  of  no 
consequence  at  all  whether  the  person  baptized 
is  totally  immersed,  or  whether  he  is  merely 
sprinkled  by  an  affusion  of  water.  This  should 
be  a  matter  of  choice  to  the  churches  in  different 
regions,  although  the  word  baptize  signifies  to 
immerse,  and  the  rite  of  immersion  was  practiced 
by  the  ancient  Church.J  That,  if  experience 
shows  a  certain  ordinance  to  be  good,  it  is  your 
right  to  adopt  it,  whether  Scripture  points  it  out 
or  not.§  That  it  is  not  essential  to  salvation. || 
That  if  baptism  was  first  administered  by  im- 
mersion, might  not  a  regard  to  usage,  to  decency 
or  to  convenience,  be  a  sufficient  reason  for 
varying  the  mode  ?Tf 

Replies. — We  cannot  think  God  will  honor 
the  inventions  of  men,  however  they  may  be 
dignified  by  the  specious  names  of  useful,  decent, 

*  Koman  Cath.  Catec. 

I  Dr.  Gumming. 

X  John  Calvin,  founder  of  Pres.  Oh. 
§  H.  W.  Beecher  in  Ser.  May,  1864. 

II  General. 

f  Dr.  L.  Woods'  Works,  Vol.  iii.,  p.  460. 


AS  FALSELY   VIEWED.  105 

agreeable,  or  prudent  contrivances ;  yet,  if  they 
are  an  addition  to  His  system,  will  He  not  say  : 
Who  hath  required  these  things  at  your  hands  f^ 
And  that  principle  that  the  Church  hath  power 
to  institute  any  thing  or  ceremony  belonging  to 
the  worship  of  God,  either  as  to  matter  or  to 
manner,  beyond  the  orderly  observance  of  such 
circumstances  as  necessarily  attend  such  ordi- 
nances as  Christ  Himself  hath  instituted,  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  all  the  horrible  superstition  and 
idolatry,  of  all  the  confusion,  blood,  persecution, 
and  wars,  that  have  for  so  long  a  season  spread 
themselves  over  the  surface  of  the  Christian 
world,  t 

But  to  serve  God  otherwise  than  He  re- 
quireth,  is  not  to  worshijy,  but  to  rob  and  mock 
Him. J  And  true  philosophy  as  well  as  true 
Christianity,  would  teach  us  a  wiser  and  more 
modest  spirit.  It  would  teach  us  to  be  content 
within  those  bounds  which  God  has  assigned 
us.§  As  before  stated :  Nothing  is  a  privilege 
in  the  religious  sense,  but  what  God  has  made 
such  ;  and  He  has  made  nothing  such,  except  in 

*  Archibald  Hall's  View  of  Gospel  Church,  p.  82. 

t  Dr.  Owen's  Sermon. 

X  B'p  Reynolds'  Works,  p.  163. 

^  Lord  Lyttelton,  Conv.  of  Paul,  p.  67. 


106  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

His  own  way,  and  on  His  own  terms.  Baptism 
is  a  privilege  when  administered  and  received 
in  the  manner  appointed  by  Him,  hut 'in  no 
other.  When  this  ordinance  is  received  in  any 
other  manner,  it  is  plainly  no  obedience  to  any 
command  of  His,  and  therefore,  let  me  add,  has 
no  encouragement  to  hope  for  a  blessing.*  If 
it  can  be  obeyed,  it  must;  if  it  cannot,  it  must 
be  let  alone.  It  is  that  in  which  God  will  so 
perfectly  be  obeyed  that  He  will  not  be  disputed 
with,  or  inquired  of,  why  and  how,  but  just  ac- 
cording to  the  measures  set  down ;  so  and  no 
morCy  and  no  less,  and  no  otherwise,  f  The  law 
of  the  Lord  is  perfect.^  The  Scripture  cannot 
be  broken. §  Hence  God  has  absolutely  jDro- 
hibited  all  men,  under  severe  denunciations, 
and  with  terrible  expressions  of  His  anger, 
either  to  form  religious  institutions,  or  to  sub- 
stitute their  own  institutions  for  His.||  Rev. 
xxii.  18,  19.  As  we  must  take  heed  that  we 
do  not  add  the  fancies  of  men  to  our  Divine 
religion,  so  we  must  take  equal  care  that  we  do 

*  Dr.  Dwight's  Sermons,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  343. 

t  B'p  Taylor's  Due.  Dub.,  b.  ii.,  c.  iii.,  ^  14,  18. 

X  Ps.  xix.  7. 

^  John  X.  35. 

II  Dr.  Dwight. 


AS  FALSELY   VIEWED.  107 

not  curtail  the  appointments  of  Christ.*  For  it 
is  an  impious  and  dangerous  thing  to  affix  God's 
name  to  our  own  imaginations. f 

But  some  may  say,  Surely  God  will  not  he  so 
much  concerned  with  a  failure  in  so  smalt  a 
punctilio  as  a  ceremony  !  True,  it  is  a  ceremony ; 
but  it  is  such  a  one  that  beareth  the  stamp  and 
authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  If  He  appoints 
it,  will  you  slight  it,  and  say.  It  is  but  a  cere- 
mony? Tell  me,  was  circumcision  any  more 
than  a  ceremony  ?  Yet  it  had  almost  cost 
Moses  his  life  for  neglecting  to  circumcise  his 
son. 

But  I  am  regenerate  J  and  become  a  new  crea- 
ture; I  do  not  fear  that  God  will  cast  me  away 
for  the  disuse  of  a  ceremony.  Is  this  the  reason- 
ing of  one  regenerate  ?  Surely  thou  dost  not 
understand  what  regeneration  meaneth.  When 
you  have  considered  this,  then  tell  me  what  you 
think  of  this  kind  of  reasoning ;  I  am  a  child  of 
God,  therefore  I  will  presume  to  disobey  Him.X 
Why !  Christian  ordinances  are  designed  for 
Christian  people;  for  persons  who  are  already 
saved  by  grace.     But  does    it  therefore  follow 

-  Watts'  Humble  Attempt,  p.  62. 

t  Dr.  Owen  on  Heb. 

X  Wadsworth  on  Lord's  Supper,  pp.  243,  244. 


108  CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM 

that  an  ordinance,  established  by  Christ,  has  no 
important  end  to  answer,  and  may  safely  be 
despised  ?*  God  is  infinitely  better  able  than 
we  are  to  judge  of  the  propriety  and  usefulness 
of  the  things  He  institutes ;  and  it  becomes  us 
to  obey  with  humility  and  reverence.f 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is,  '^  Fear 
God  and  keep  His  Commandments.''I 

*  Dr.  J.  Campbell,  Jethro,  p.  235. 
t  Dr.  S.  Clark,  Exp.  Ch.  Cat.,  p.  306. 
X  Scripture. 


AUTHORS  QUOTED. 


1  Ainsworth. 

2  Alford,  Dean. 

3  Alstidius. 

4  Alting,  J.,  D.  D. 

5  Ambrose  (A.  D.  390). 

6  Am.  Tract  Soc.  Pub. 

7  Am.  Presbyterian. 

8  Anthon,  Prof.  Charles,  Columbia  College,  N.  Y, 

9  Baily  (1639). 

10  Baily,  Bishop. 

11  Bancroft,  U.  S.  Historian. 

12  Barnes,  Albert,  D.  D. 

13  Baumgarten. 

14  Baxter,  K. chard. 

15  Beecher,  H.  Ward. 

16  Bengel,  J.  Albert,  Author  of  Gnomon. 

17  Benson,  Dr.  G. 

18  Bingham. 

19  Bickersteth,  E. 

20  Bloomfield,  Author  Greek  Test. 

21  Bonaventure. 

22  Bossuet,  Bishop. 

23  Brenner,  Eom.  Cath. 

24  Bretschneider. 

25  Buddeus. 

109 


110  AUTHORS   QUOTED. 

26  Bunsen,  Dr. 

27  Burnet,  Bishop. 

28  Burns,  J.  D.,  D.  D. 

29  Bushnell,  Horace,  D.  D. 

30  Calvin,  John,  Founder  of  Presbyterian  Church. 

31  Campbell,  Dr.  G. 

32  Campbell,  Dr.  J. 

33  Casaubon. 

34  Cave,  Dr. 

35  Chalmers,  Dr. 

36  Clark,  Dr.  Adam. 

37  Clark,  Dr.  Samuel. 

38  Chillingworth. 

39  Chrysostom,  (A.  D.  398). 

40  Coleman. 

41  Conybeare. 

42  Cumming,  Dr. 

43  Cranmer,  Archbishop. 

44  Conder,  Kev.  J. 

45  Curcellus,  Prof,  of  Divinity,  Geneva. 

46  Cyprian,  (A.  D.  253). 

47  Cyril,  (A.  D.  374). 

48  Dermont,  Dr.  J.  J.  Chaplain  to  King  of  Netherlands. 

49  Doddridge,  Philip,  D.  D. 

50  Dodwell,  Dr.  H. 

51  Donnegan,  Author  Lex. 

52  Douay  Testament.  x 

53  D'Outreinius. 

54  Dwight,  Dr. 

55  Ecce  Homo.  ' 

56  Encyclopedia  Ecclesiastica. 

57  Editor  Congregationalist. 

58  Edinburgh  Reviewers. 

59  Edinburgh  Cyclopedia. 

60  English  Imp.  Die. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED.  HI 


61  Elliot,  Bishop. 

62  Estius,  Rom.  Cath. 

63  Fabricius,  Guido. 

64  Fairbairn,  Dr. 

65  Featly,  Dr. 

66  Field^  Dr. 

67  Flatt,  Prof. 

68  Fritsch. 

69  Fuller,^Adv.  Inf. 

70  Gataker. 

71  Gertlerus. 

72  Gervinu3,  German  Philosopher. 

73  Goodwin,  Dr. 

74  Greenfield,  Dr. 

75  Griffin,  Dr. 

76  Grotius. 

77  Hagenbach. 

78  Hahn,  Prof. 

79  Hall,  Archibald. 

80  Hall,  Dr.  John,  N.  Y. 

81  Halley,  Dr. 

82  Hanna,  Dr. 

83  Harness,  E,ev.  Wm. 

84  Henry,  Matthew. 

85  Hayne's  Encyclopedia. 

86  Hervey. 

87  Hibbard,  Dr. 

88  Hoadly,  Bishop. 

89  Hodge,  Dr.^  Charles. 

90  Hooker. 

91  Hopkins,  Bishop. 

92  Home's  Introduction. 

93  Howson,  Dean. 


112  AUTHORS   QUOTED. 

95  Jacobi,  Dr. 

96  Jones,  Dr.  John. 

97  Kenrick,  Archbishop. 

98  King,  Dr.  D. 

99  King,  Peter,  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Eng. 

100  Kitto. 

101  Knapp,  G.  C,  D.  D.    Prof,  of  Theol.,  Halle. 

102  Koraes. 

103  Lange,  Dr.  J.  P.,  Prof,  of  Theol.,  University  of  Bonn. 

104  Latimer,  Bishop. 

105  Leigh,  Dr.,  Author  Critica  Sacra. 

106  Liddel  and  Scott. 

107  Leibnitz. 

108  Lightfoot,  Dr. 

109  Lond.  Quar.  Keview. 

110  Luther,  Martin. 

111  Lyttelton,  Lord. 

112  Macknight,  Dr. 

113  Maimonides  (Jew). 

114  Mather,  Cotton. 

115  Matthies. 

116  Melancthon. 

117  Melville,  Dr.  H. 

118  Meyer,  Dr.  H.  A.  W. 

119  Morrison,  Dr.  John. 

120  Mosheim,  Dr.  J.  L. 

121  Newton. 

122  Neander,  Dr.  Augustus. 

123  New  Am.  Encyclopedia. 

124  North  Brit.  Eeview. 

125  Olshausen. 

126  Owen,  Dr. 

127  Paine,  Prof.  L.  L.,  Theol.  Sem.  Bangor,  Me. 

128  Paley,  Dr. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED  113 


129  Park,  Kev.  A.  L. 

130  Parkhurst. 

131  Phillips,  Kev.  Wm. 

132  Polhill. 

133  Person,  Prof. 

134  Pressense,  Dr. 

135  Quenstedius. 

136  Keynolds,  Bishop. 

137  Kheinhard. 

138  Eobertson,  Kev.  F.  \V. 

139  Robinson,  Dr.  E. 

140  Eoel. 

141  Kouge,  M.  De  la. 

142  Rosenmuller. 

143  Eost,  Prof.  (German.) 

144  Rom.  Cath.  Catechism. 

145  Kyle,  Rev.  J.  C. 

146  Scapula. 

147  Salmasius. 

148  Sanderson,  Bishop. 

149  Schneckenberger. 

150  Schleiermacher. 

151  Schoettgen. 

152  Schrevellius. 

153  Schindler. 

154  Scott,  the  Commentator. 

155  Schaff,  Philip,  D.D.,  Prof.  Theol.,  Pa. 

156  Smith,  Bishop,  Ky. 

157  Smith's  Bib.  Die. 

158  Southey. 

159  Stanley,  Dean. 

160  Stacey,  Rev. 

161  Stack,  Rev. 

162  Stuart,  Prof  M. 


114  AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


163  Stanhope,  Dr.  G. 

164  Stephens. 

165  Stephanus. 

166  Stockms. 

167  Storr,  Dr. 

168  Stourdza. 

169  Suicerus,  Prof,  of  Hebrew  and  Greek,  Zurich. 

170  Strype. 

171  Sumner,  Archb. 

172  Taylor,  Bishop  Jeremy. 

173  Taylor,  Dr.  Isaac. 

174  Theophylact. 

175  Tholuck. 

176  Tilenus. 

177  Thorn,  Rev. 

178  Trommius. 

179  Towerson,  Dr. 

180  Trelawney,  Sir  H. 

181  Trevern,  Rev.  Dr. 

182  Turretine. 

183  Valasius. 

184  Vatablus,  Prof,  of  Hebrew,  Paris. 

185  Venema. 

186  Vitringa. 

187  Waddington. 

188  Wadsworth,  Dr. 

189  Watson,  Richard. 

190  Wardlaw,  Dr. 

191  Watts,  Dr. 

192  Wall,  Dr.,  Vicar  of  Siioreham,  England. 

193  Wesley,  John,  Founder  of  Metliodisra. 

194  Weiss. 

195  Webster  and 

196  Wilkinson. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED.  115 

197  Wette  Dr.  De. 

198  Wetham,  Dr.  R. 

199  Wetstein. 

200  Williams,  Dr.  E. 

201  Witsius. 

202  Wilson,  Prof. 

203  Woods,  Dr.  L.,  Prof.  Theol.,  Andover. 

204  Ypeij,  Prof,  of  Theology,  Groningen. 

205  Zanchius.  ' 

206  Zwingle,  the  Swiss  Reformer. 


